


From The Ashes

by IAmJustAlways (ThirtySeven)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bigender Loki, Canon-Typical Violence, Families of Choice, Genderqueer Character, Mentions of Suicidal Thoughts, Multi, No established relationship, Oblivious!Thor, Odin's A+ Parenting, Post-Ragnarok, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Slow Burn, Space Adventure, Space Vikings, Tony Stark: better father figure than Odin, building a society on a space ship, genderqueer Loki, infinity wars isn't gonna happen lalala, less so but still pretty oblivious!Loki, more tags to come, third person changing POV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-01-28 07:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12601192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirtySeven/pseuds/IAmJustAlways
Summary: His people could now fit into a single hall in a space ship, and so many of them were children. Too many young faces would grow up without Asgard even as a memory. Of Asgard’s great, famed warriors there was only he and the Valkyrie left. How many healers with Asgard’s secrets resided in this hall, broken? How many of the mighty sorcerers?He had never cared much for books and things metaphorical, but in that moment Thor was ready to weep for all the knowledge lost in Asgard’s great Library.





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So I've seen Thor Ragnarok five times now (oops?) and I just really needed Thor and co. flying through space on their ship dealing with shit. Just a word of warning I HAVE read Bend Around The Wind so I might unconsciously have taken some inspiration from that story. If you haven't read it go so now! FrostIron space pirates is always good.
> 
> With Loki's gender, it's something I will address in later chapters, but basically how I perceive Loki to be in the Agent of Asgard comics (the only Thor related comic I've ever read). In this Loki changes between male and female randomly, and their pronouns change with the physical change. So, in this, when Loki is male, I and all my characters will refer to him as 'he', but when Loki is female we will refer to her as 'she'. Hopefully it isn't too complicated.
> 
> A word of warning: I have NO IDEA where the heck I'm going with this, just that Thorki will eventually happen and some other vague plot bunnies. Before I update next I'm going to actually, y'know, plot shit out. I do not read the Thor comics, or any Marvel comics involving space so I'm really not going off of any of that. I also have only a passing knowledge in Norse mythology so there's that too.

Hundreds of faces looked back at Thor from where he stood behind his makeshift throne. He did not know what to do. They had a course, but no organisation. He didn’t even know who was flying – or indeed whether they were flying on the correct course for Earth. There was not a face in the crowd more then passingly familiar. These people watched him patiently, waiting for some sort of order, but what was he to say?

“Brother.” A voice whispered at his ear and Thor almost whirled and attacked. But no, now was not the time to attack Loki, he was merely being cautious that none other heard, as he often did when speaking to him in public – in the old days.

Thor tilted his head fractionally, he was listening.

“Perhaps we should organise a meal in this hall for the people while a group of representatives reconvenes elsewhere to form a course of action.”

And – yes that was a sound plan. Thor would not blindly trust Loki’s plans for a long time – if ever again – but he could see no harm in this.

Thor drew in a breath to speak, then hesitated. Giving this order to his people would make him truly king, it seemed. Speaking now would bring finality to it all, his father was dead, Asgard was gone, its once thriving population reduced to hundreds and this would be the beginning of his reign as king.

With more effort than any word before he said, “I need volunteers! First some to find the kitchens and prepare a meal.”

The crowd was silent for a moment and Thor was suddenly afraid none would come forward. Then a small portly woman strode out from the crowd, her eyes were bright and her cheeks splotchy from tears freshly fallen, she wore simple clothes of a peasant woman.

“I am Fenja – Your Majesty – I worked as a cook in the Green River Inn, if there is anything resembling a kitchen in this place I can make food but –“ She looked around in apprehension “- I will need help.”

It took a little time but eventually they had fifteen volunteers to set out to find the kitchens in the ship and create a meal for all the people. Miek had announced (through Korg) that he’d found what he thought to be a dining area on the other side of the ship and they had decided to start their search there.

Next Thor asked for volunteers to confer with him over their next move. He left the hall with four volunteers, the Valkyrie, Korg, Heimdall and Loki and almost sighed in relief to be away from all those eyes but caught himself at the last moment when he caught the awed gaze of Rolf, the carpenter.

“Where to?” Korg asked as the group stalled just outside the door.

“There should be a smaller observation room near the hull, there might be a table we can sit at or at least something to write with.” Valkyrie suggested. She looked to Thor and he nodded for her to lead on.

They did in fact find an observation room smaller than the hall, there was no table, but two long padded benches faced each other and that was enough. When everyone was seated there was an long silence for a moment before Thor realized that he was expected to lead this meeting. With what he had no clue.

“So,” he began, “any ideas?”

Silence for a moment and then, “We should asses our situation.” Loki said. He was seated directly across from Thor and looked decidedly uncomfortable, although to most he knew Loki likely looked completely composed. They looked at each other for a moment in silence.

 _Is this permitted_? Loki’s eyes asked.

 _For now_ , Thor’s replied. Loki continued.

“We need to count our number as well as the amount of beds – I doubt this ship has the capacity for the people on it so we must figure out how space must be divided. We must also make assessment of our supplies and figure out how exactly we get to Earth from here and how long it will take. A direct trip from Asgard to Midgard has not been done in – “ he frowned “- I am not sure if it has ever been done.”

“Why do we go to Midgard?” A woman asked, she wore an intricately designed dress that had been dirtied and torn from days of use, her golden hair had been tied about her head in the ridiculous ways ladies a court often did, but that too was frayed and loose in chunks. Thor did not remember her name. “Why not one of the other, more civilised realms?”

Thor had to swallow back a harsh reply. It was true, after all, Midgard was not the most civilised of realms – but then again Asgard was no longer a realm at all.

“The other realms are in chaos,” Heimdall answered, much to Thor’s relief, “with Odin’s absence, many of the anti-Asgardian movements that once simmered in the dark have boiled over into outright rebellions. Midgard was the only realm which only governed itself so now it is our only option.”

“Anyway our destination isn’t our current problem,” said Rolf, the carpenter, “the prince is right, we need to sort out what we have and figure out where people are to sleep. That is our immediate problem.”

“We also need to figure out what to do with the children.” Another woman spoke in a small cautious voice and immediately appeared shocked at herself for doing so. Hilde the teacher if Thor recalled correctly, she sat to the left of Loki and to the right of her wife, Turid, back straight as a rod and gazing at the floor. She was thin and delicately lined along her eyes and mouth and appeared as if she had not slept in days.

They all watched her for a moment waiting for her to continue but she did not.

“What do you mean?” Thor prompted.

The poor thing nearly jumped out of her skin, she glanced up, caught his gaze for a fraction of a second and looked away. She licked her lips nervously before continuing.

“Many of the – many of the common folk who chose to stay and fight against – her – sent their children into the woods to flee – and many of them never followed after. There are many young children among us who no one is looking out for – who no one knows needs looking out for.”

And that was a sobering thought on a sobering day. Now that Thor thought back there did seem to be a disproportionate number of children in the crowd. An idea came to him then.

“We can find these parentless children when we do our count,” he said, his gaze flicking briefly to Loki as it always used to do when he was forming a plan, before focusing back on Hilde, “we can record what family members each person has with them on the ship. If we can find these children we can begin to care for them.”

“You’re right.” It was Loki again who spoke and their eyes met once more, Thor felt an old, almost forgotten spark of pride, the kind he’d had Before. Loki saw it – of course he did – his eyes danced with mirth. “We need a more comprehensive survey – a census – to tell us what we’re really working with. We find out their names, their age, the family they have on board and their previous vocation should do.”

“Anything more than a headcount will take time.” The Valkyrie said from beside Thor.

“We have time,” Loki replied, leaning back, eyes not moving from Thor’s, “it would be better to do the job correctly, but slowly the first time than to rush through it and need to redo it anyway. We need this information to function. I suggest we set teams to survey our situation immediately.

Thor nodded. “Then we shall begin. Valkyrie, you gather a team to label all the living quarters so we know how many beds are in each individual one; Hilde take a team to begin surveying the people so that we may assign living quarters for tonight – don’t forget to survey those who have jobs outside the hall; Rolf assess our food and water stores; Korg, you take a team to asses any cargo we may have and our fuel; Heimdall, Loki and I will try to figure out our navigation. The rest of you join a team or go to your loved ones in the hall. We shall reconvene here after our tasks are complete.”

Thor felt better with a clear purpose. Given their own tasks, the others filtered out of the room but Thor stayed seated, watching his brother opposite him. He wasn’t sure that he trusted Loki with navigating them toward Earth – scratch that he absolutely _did not_ trust Loki with this task – but he knew of no others on the ship who had ever had cause to travel to Midgard at all.

“Where do we start?” he mused allowed.

Loki heaved a very put upon sigh and rose to his feet. “There’ll be maps on the bridge.”

*

Loki entered the bridge first only to stop and unleash a vicious growl. Thor dropped his hand to hover over his weapon as he followed Loki into the room.

The bridge was unlike anything Thor had seen on a spaceship before. He had come to expect complicated computer panels with various switches and buttons and a steering mechanism of some sort. Instead the only things of notice in the room was a window viewing the front of the ship and a large black table in the middle of the room.

There was also absolutely no one present.

Loki turned on him, visibly seething. “Who was assigned to man the bridge?”

“I don’t know – maybe no one.”

The god of mischief was turning red – in a way Thor was all too familiar with from his childhood.

“Who exactly do you think was going to do that for you?!” His brother roared, “we have been sitting here for _hours_ , just waiting to be set upon by Ravagers! Who exactly did you think would do this for you?”

Thor felt his face also heat up, with shame rather than rage. Loki was right, damn him, on this ship right now the only person who held any responsibility was him – he could no longer assume someone else would take care of matters.

“Loki enough.” Heimdall rumbled, stepping forward to grab Loki’s shoulder before he – well Thor didn’t know what he was about to do. Loki shoved him off and turned his back on the pair. His shoulders rose and fell three times slowly before he spoke.

“The table is a series of computer terminals, just find a space and tap and it will give you a screen to work with. Let us find Thor’s precious planet.”

The going was slow as the computer system was alien to all of them and the names for places were all different. They had to work off memory, trying to find familiar locations in maps that spanned three galaxies.

Eventually Heimdall said, “I think I found it.” And with a gesture brought up a holographic map. Thor peered through it trying to determine what Heimdall saw, for a moment all he could make out was a bunch of different sized dots but then a memory trickled through and one of the dotted collections formed the familiar pattern of the Midgardian solar system.

Loki appeared to have seen it too. “How far?” He asked, apprehensively.

Heimdall shrugged, “By the ships calculations it will take a little over two years to reach.”

Thor nodded, calculating. Two years was a long time but it could be much worse. Still, they really needed information the others were gathering to truly assess their situation.

“Are there any planets suitable for trade on our path?” He asked.

Loki tapped some command onto the table. “According to this there are four, all Novan colonies. Three, four, eight and thirteen months away respectively.”

That wasn’t too bad. Hopefully the ship could provide for them for three months, though Thor had no idea what they could trade for after that. The stretch of an unbroken eleven months between the final colony and Earth would be the most difficult, but it was to be expected with how isolated Earth was.

“Would we be able to use the Tesseract to warn Earth of our arrival?” He asked his brother.

Loki froze.

The new king had to hold back a grin. He was beginning to understand why his brother always sought to create mischief as did, getting one up on someone was addicting. Beside him, Heimdall laughed.

After a moment Loki seemed to compose himself again. “I – well –“ he swallowed and straightened his shirt “- without a stabilizing agent I couldn’t create a portal, but I would be able to take one or two things through if I was touching it. But I wouldn’t be able to do so very often, it would take up much of my energy and I would have to prepare for it and recover after.”

Thor did grin then, at Loki’s obvious discomfort and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man. Right, who piloted the ship on the way over?”

The other god rolled his eyes and shrugged. “The three headed beast, I believe he was slain on Asgard. Who flew us away?”

“You know I might have been a bit busy fighting the goddess of death to pay attention to that sort of thing. Do you know how to fly it?”

Loki glared.

Thor smiled.

“Why don’t we see if anyone else has finished?” Heimdall said.

*

They hadn’t.

The Hall looked much the same as it had an hour ago, although now people were now sitting on the floor looking morose. When he entered the people around him looked up before bowing their heads in deference. Some people were walking through the crowd with electronic tablets, still in the process of taking the census.

After asking around he discovered that a former gladiator names Phora knew how to pilot the ship and so he sent her and Heimdall back to the bridge to start them on their long journey. He would need to find more pilots or train them. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a difficult job to conclude.

Looking around he saw Loki sitting on the arm of his makeshift throne, looking out into space. That was mildly surprising, he wouldn’t have expected Loki to show any sort of deference to the throne. Alhough he had been rather docile since he had arrived. Perhaps he was on his best behaviour. Seeing no better option, Thor made his way through the crowd and sat on the throne, Loki didn’t shift.

They were silent for a while then, watching the stars outside, listening to the murmur of the hall. After a sort while the cooks came into the hall and started sharing out food. Thor found himself with a bowl in hand without any recollection as to how it got there. Loki had a bowl too, and a loaf of strange, green bread which he and Thor passed between them as they ate in silence. It was good soup, although strange with a strange sweet-savoury flavour that Thor found himself enjoying. When he finished the bowl was removed without him realizing yet again and he found himself wondering if the Wizard, Strange was secreted on this ship somewhere.

Some time after the soup, Turid, Hilde’s wife, approached the brothers, electronic pad in hand.

“Your majesties,” she said, “we’re trying to do families at the same time, will you do it together?”

“Of course.” Thor smiled at the woman. She was tall, almost the same height as Loki, with slicked back ash blonde hair and harsh features. Perhaps once she smiled, but today it looked like she had forgotten how. She merely nodded and tapped on her pad.

“Names?”

“Thor Odinsson.”

His brother hesitated a moment, tilting his head at the woman. Eventually he said, “Loki Friggasson”

Thor deliberately didn’t swallow around the lump in his throat. He wasn’t surprised. If Turid was surprised by Loki’s choice, she didn’t show it, just continued going through the list of questions, each with relatively simple answers. When she asked their what relations they had aboard the ship Thor said brothers and Loki immediately corrected by saying adoptive. He told himself he wasn’t hurt.

“What were your last three vocations?”

“Avenger, gladiator and King of Asgard.” Thor answered with a laugh. When it came for Loki’s turn he grinned sharply at them both.

“Villain, traitor, impersonator of the King of Agard.”

 A moment of silence. Turid blinked up from her tablet in shock, then the flood gates opened and Thor was doubled over in fits of laughter.

Thor recovered from his fit quickly but he still had the eyes of hundreds of Asgardians fixed upon him. Clearing his throat he glanced up at his brother. Loki watched him from his perch, eyes filled with mirth. Turid looked at the brothers in askance but Loki merely shrugged.

Not long after Turid left them, the Valkyrie, Korg and Rolf returned to the Hall with news. According to the Valkyrie there were four hundred and twenty living quarters in total, ranging from small dark rooms with shared washrooms to large private suites big enough to fit a family of ten. One suite in particular, she said, held its own kitchen, dining room, lounge, private observation deck and an extravagant bedroom with a bed that could fit at least ten.

“I assume you’ll be taking that one, oh glorious majesty.” She added.

Thor frowned in thought, “Perhaps that particular room would be more suited for Hulk.” He had been deliberately avoiding thinking about the great beast that shared their small space. They had to figure a way to keep the Hulk docile, or at least explain to him that piercing the hull was a Bad Idea. From Loki’s stiffening beside him and the Valkyrie’s widening eyes, clearly neither of them had thought about it either. “In any case,” he continued, “we cannot make any plans until the census is complete and we know how many people we need to fit into these rooms.”

Next came Rolf with the cook, Fenja in tow and baring worrying news. While the kitchens were well stocked, Fenja believed that there would not be enough to feed everyone for more than a few weeks. What was worse was that much of the stock was perishable fruit and vegetable, they had already placed as much of it as they could into freezer storage, but there was not enough space for everything.

“What we really need is some way to convert the main storage space into a freezing unit. If we cannot do that our supplies will be greatly limited.” Rolf warned, wringing his hands.

“What of our supply of water?” Loki asked, he had taken a note pad out of thin air and was taking notes.

Rolf was taken by surprise at this. “I – I’m not sure your Majesty, I didn’t look into it.”

Loki narrowed his eyes in anger and Thor decided to intervene before he scared the poor man to death – or actually killed him, you never knew with his brother these days.

“Thank you for your report, Rolf. You should search to find out about our water supply next, try starting by searching the ship’s computer.”

Rolf, visibly relieved, bowed and left.

Thor heaved a sigh and leaned back in the throne. “You shouldn’t be so harsh, Loki.”

The god sniffed, “I said nothing to him.”

“And you weren’t about to?”

 “Correct. I would never go above my station, your Majesty.” Loki paused then, looking contemplative, “Although I suppose I did a little. He called me Majesty.”

Thor snorted. “Does that please you, then brother?”

“Perhaps. It is good to be respected, even if they use a title above my station. I suppose you’re going to make me correct him if it happens again.”

“Eh, your Majesty, your Highness, really they are not so different and even then their differences are not important.”

Loki appeared contemplative at this. “Perhaps,” he said after a short while, “perhaps it is important, though, Thor. Look around us, once we were thousands living on our homeland, surrounded by history both written and not. I think if we are not careful we will forget our past, our culture, and that may be a dangerous thing. We forgot about Hela and she nearly destroyed us.”

If that wasn’t a sobering thought Thor did not know what was. Loki was right of course, as he often was. Thor did look around. His people could now fit into a single hall in a space ship, and so many of them were children, too many young faces would grow up without Asgard even as a memory. Of Asgard’s great, famed warriors there was only he and the Valkyrie left. How many healers with Asgard’s secrets resided in this hall, broken? How many of the mighty sorcerers? Was Loki the last?

He had never cared much for books and things metaphorical, but in that moment Thor was ready to weep for all the knowledge lost in Asgard’s great Library. He wondered how much Loki managed to secret away before Surtur forced him to flee. He wondered whether Loki would return these things to the people.

“Hey bro – or your Majesty bro I guess, what with you being King and all. Isn’t it neat, you being King of your own space ship?” Thor was broken out of his reverie by the rock creatures nonsensical musings.

Thor smiled, despite himself. “Hello Korg, you bring news of the cargo?”

Korg nodded amiably and beside him Loki took out his notepad once more. The ship, as it turned out, didn’t run on fuel so much as it was battery powered. According to the manual – which, how Korg had managed to find a _manual_ was beyond him – the batteries had to be recharged with a strong electrical current every year or so with constant use. This was the first truly good news Thor had heard all day. As long as they landed on a planet with an atmosphere – and there were plenty of them in this universe – he could provide the power for the ship himself.

The cargo on board was less pleasing. The ship was another of the Grandmaster’s leisure vessels, according to the Valkyrie, designed for long sustained parties. As such its cargo hold didn’t hold trade items but supplies for the parties. No extra food or valuable metals, there were some medical supplies but not much, there was quite a lot of alcohol, streamers, balloons and contraception. When they reached the Novan colony they would be lucky to trade for what they needed and may have to resort to theft, as repellent as that idea was.

The good news was that there was also much in the way of clothing, bedding and entertainment. Korg believed they had at least a hundred mattresses that could be used by the people if needs be.

After meeting with Korg, there was not much that could be done before the census was complete, so Thor decided to assist with the census. People looked up at him with awe when he approached them, and Thor wondered if this was part of being King that he would have to learn to deal with.

He spoke to Ragnhild Rolfdottir, blonde and young and barely three hundred years old, she had been apprenticed to her mother, a seamstress along with her two younger sisters. The only family on the ship was her father.

Snorre Autisson was a noble of the court for ten thousand years and had with him seven sons and twenty grandchildren. Once he had a daughter and twenty three grandchildren.

Signy Karsidottir was a child of twenty, small and serious and on the cusp of womanhood, she held her squalling brother, Thor in her arms, an infant of but five.

With each name he recorded, a weight set on Thor’s shoulders. Every person on this ship was in mourning for someone, all had seen horrors and been hunted. He ached for those they had lost, as he ached for those he had lost. His father, his companions of hundreds of years. All he had left now was Loki.

After every completed record, Thor wanted to stop, he wanted to run and hide or to go find the Valkyrie wherever she was and drown his sorrows. But he would not stop, he would continue with the others set to this gruelling task.

There was Vigi Iarlsson, a farmer Thor’s age who once had an extended family of fifty but was now the last of his kin. Johan Ljotsson, an adolescent who had watched his father cut down by the draugr and had to pick up his fallen sword. Alfdis Iricdottir a healer whose age-worn eyes shone with tears she refused to shed as she clutched her now orphaned granddaughters to her side. The names went on and on, the stories all different yet achingly similar. But eventually he looked around the hall and everyone held the piece of blue cloth that marked them as counted and the census was finally complete.

They convened once more in the observation room, now perhaps more prepared to make decisions than all those hours before. Someone had installed a spare computer terminal table and found chairs to sit around rather than the bench, and Thor felt more familiar with this setting, almost like a council meeting and yet it did not make him more comfortable. Now he sat at the head of the table, Loki to his right side, his blind side, a place deserving of him as the next in line for the throne. It made Thor itch.

It was Loki who spoke first. He had gathered all the information relayed to Thor on his notepad and read it now to this makeshift council. After Loki finished they looked to Hilde to relay the results of the census, her expression was grim as she tapped open the census data onto the table.

“There are six hundred and ninety-three Asgardians and thirty-seven ex-slaves of various species. Of the Asgardians, two hundred and seventy-three are children, of these children, ninety-eight are here without any adult relatives.”

Thor felt bile rise in his throat. Six hundred and ninety-three was all that was left of _thousands_. The whole table looked at each other uneasily. It was all at once too little and _far_ too many.

“We only have beds for four and twenty,” The noble lady from before spoke, Thor thought her name may be Astrid, “how will we house everyone?”

“Many of the beds are large enough for multiple people, family members will have to share. Husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings.” Thor put in, “The families should get the larger quarters, while people alone get the smaller servants quarters. Some by themselves will also have to share.” People nodded in agreement at this.

“What about the orphans?” Hilde demanded.

To everyone’s surprise it was Korg who spoke up. “There’s an empty storage bay near the rear of the ship, its close to the servants quarters so there’s a bathroom nearby, we could lay out some of the spare mattresses for the kids, maybe have the younger ones share. We could assign whoever wants to look after them to the quarters nearby.”

“I can look after them,” Hilde put in immediately, Thor had expected as much, “but I will need help.”

“I can help,” Astrid added to everyone’s surprise.

Hilde looked over to her with narrowed eyes. “Do you have any experience with children?”

Astrid glared right back, “I was a governess, before.”

They watched each other for a moment more but this seemed to make Hilde concede. “We’ll still need more people, looking after nearly a hundred children will be difficult, I’ll go through the database to see if anyone is suitable.”

Thor nodded, appeased, “Good thinking, Korg. Valkyrie do you know the chamber of which he speaks?”

The Valkyrie shrugged, “I think so, I’ll assign them to the servants quarters near it.”

“Good, I want you and Hilde to work together to assign everyone appropriate quarters – I want everyone to have a place to sleep tonight.”

Valkyrie nodded, “What about… what about you sire?” She asked, Thor blinked. Before he could say anything though, Loki answered.

“See if you can find Thor and I a quarters to share, If we can get a private bathroom and a window I will be pleased.”

Thor looked at Loki in shock, it hadn’t occurred to him that he and Loki would share, but it made sense, they were brothers after all, Thor probably would have recommended it himself. But still the idea of sharing a living space with his brother after all this time as enemies was… disconcerting. The rest of the table also seemed a little shocked by Loki’s announcement, but Valkyrie took it in stride, making a note on the table.

“I think we’ll leave it at this today,” Thor said, rising from the table, the others scrambled to rise with him. There was still work to be done but for now the people needed to sleep. “Tomorrow we reconvene.”

 


	2. Much Ado About Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor eats breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Another Thursday, another chapter. If you want you can go to this link (https://at-home-other.ambient-mixer.com/in-the-eating-hall) when Thor starts eating for what I imagine the dining hall sounds like. I've got a few things at the end I want to talk about but without further ado I present to you chapter 2:

In the first night of sharing a bed with Loki, Thor was kicked out of it. Three times.

The first time, Thor just got back into bed. The second, he whirled, planning on confronting the mischief god, only to see that he was soundly asleep. The third time, Thor gave up and went in search of the kitchens.

It was disconcerting, to say the least coming out into the brightly lit corridor at whatever time it was. There was no sunset and no sunrise in space, only the lights on and the lights off. It would probably take him a while to get used to it. The kitchens, he found, were near the front of the ship, adjacent to a large dining hall lined with long tables – proper tables no more of those computer tables – with benches and chairs scattered around them. When Thor entered the kitchens proper, he was surprised to see people already scurrying around in there, cooking.

“Your majesty!” Fenja, the cook, cried upon seeing him, she was looking over a pot and stirring. When she finished she bustled up to the young king.

“What are you doing up at this time?”

“I… uh-”  _ must sound regal, must sound regal _ “-like to think at this time - I wasn’t kicked out of bed or anything.”

Shit. Thor tried to hide a wince at the small woman’s raised eyebrow. Quick - distract,  _ distract! _

“Er – what are you doing up so early?”

Fenja laughed. “Why cooking breakfast of course! Here,” She ladled out a bowl of what looked like bright blue porridge and shoved it into his hands, “you can have the first bowl, sire.”

Still slightly flushing, Thor took the bowl gratefully and returned to the eating hall to sit at one of the many tables. Oh how he longed for his brother’s quick tongue at times, although this longing to be more like Loki only began recently. For hundreds of years he had scoffed at Loki’s talents as useless, a thing for the weak. It was only after the trickster was no longer by his side that he realized how much he relied on this side of his brother.  _ If only I’d… _ Thor shook off his musings on the subject. He knew from experience that that path was full of misery.

A quick taste of the blue porridge was enough for him to set the food aside in favour of finding something to distract him from the food. A tablet charging on the wall caught his attention. He brought it back to the table and opened it to the census while picking at his meal, doing his best not to gag when the urge appeared every other spoonful.

People needed to be put to work, not just for maintaining the ship but to give them something to do. Odin had once told Thor that there was nothing worse than idleness after a tragedy and Thor had seen enough of the world to believe him.

They would need to train pilots very soon, Phora and Heimdall were taking twelve-hour shifts, seeing as the ship mostly flew itself once its course was set that just meant they browsed the ship’s computers for the most part, but it was important to have more people aboard capable of piloting if needs be.

It wasn’t only piloting that needed attention, Thor had no idea how the engines were maintained and he doubted anyone else knew. If they were lucky the engines would need no maintenance on the way to Earth, but Thor would prefer not to work on luck, it had this damned habit of running out at the worst possible time. Then of course there was the matter of the children and how they were going to be looked after, they had all just lost their families and would likely need more emotional support than just Hilde, Turid and Astrid could provide.

After an hour or so, people began to file into the eating hall, Thor glanced up from the census occasionally and each time there were more people eating and talking in the once quiet room. They paid him no heed, for which he was glad. Once he’d never been alone for a meal, joined by The Warriors Three, the lady Sif or any of his dozens of friends. It had never occurred to him how unvaried his companions were before now, all some sort of fighter, ready to go into battle at a moment’s notice.

_ And now all the warriors are dead and I am alone, the one-eyed King coldly surveying his subjects,  _ he thought,  _ father would be proud _ .

Once the idea would have pleased him.

“Do you mind if I sit, Your Majesty?” Thor blinked out of his reverie to see the lady Astrid standing before him, bowl clutched in her delicate hand. She had changed out of her ruined gown and cleaned herself since they had last spoke, she now wore a blue tunic, sleeves tied at her shoulders and long scaled trousers.

“No, of course, sit.”  _ Please don’t have a crush on me, please don’t have a crush on me _ .

The lady smiled nervously before doing so across from him.

“So, Your Majesty, I see you are reviewing the census.  Have you any plans for today?”

OK, just a discussion of business. “Not as such, just familiarizing myself in what skills people have.”

“Good,” came a familiar voice from his right side and Loki came to sit beside him. Thor had to turn his head to see him and was getting sick of the trickster sitting on his right. He was probably doing it on purpose, damn him. “you might assist me in my pursuit.” He continued.

This boded ill. “And what, dear brother, are you pursuing?”

Loki just grinned at him and began to eat his meal, at the first bite his eyes lit up in an all too familiar way and Thor had the urge to hide his face in his hands

“It’s  _ ginger _ .” Loki crowed.

“Yes, yes I am  _ aware _ .” He gritted out.

Astrid looked between them, obviously confused. “Do you enjoy ginger, your Highness?”

“Oh  _ yes _ , I absolutely  _ love  _ ginger.” Loki purred. Thor couldn’t see him but from Astrid’s continued confusion he knew that Loki was probably still grinning up at him.

Thor ignored it in favour of taking another spoonful of the awful slush, swallowing it down and refusing to let it back up.

“So, uh,” Astrid began again, “did you sleep well, sire?”

_ No, because my brother is a complete prick _ , he thought wryly and could practically feel Loki shaking with withheld laughter beside him.

Aloud he said, “I slept as well as can be expected, my lady. There is much to do and that weighs on me.”

“Well said brother,” Loki laughed, clapping him on the back, “speaking of much to do, I was looking at the food storage and I believe I can put a freezing charm on the area as the cook wishes.”

Thor grinned down at the sorcerer, pleased. “Is this the pursuit you spoke of? How can I help?”

Loki shrugged, “I need another sorcerer to assist me, a modifies sealing spell must be placed simultaneously with a complex freezing charm so that the cold is limited to the room and people may leave and enter without freezing themselves. If you have been perusing through the census you must have seen one of the other sorcerer’s who made it.”

Thor froze. He  _ must have  _ seen some sorcerers. He’d seen bakers and butchers and cobblers and tailors, sailors and nobles and teachers, Gregor the Librarian, Rolf the Carpenter… but…

In Thor’s silence Loki paled. “You  _ have  _ seen a sorcerer, have you not.”

Thor said nothing and the table was silent, Astrid looked between the two with clear horror in her eyes Loki had squeezed his eyes shut and Thor was staring at his brother with his own horror on his face. He had mused the other day that Loki might be the only sorcerer on board but for it to be actually  _ true _ ?

Loki hissed out a breath and opened his eyes. “You must have simply missed them.” He said.

Thor jumped onto it. “Of course, that must be it.”

“It is distracting in here,” Astrid mused, “why don’t we go to the meeting room and search for a sorcerer in the database together, we will find them quickly.”

Loki grinned at her, sharp and without humour. “That sounds like quite a plan, my lady. Come, my King, let us find the sorcerers.”

The three hurried out of the room, half eaten food left behind, though Thor did not mourn the ginger mush. The walk to the meeting room was tense and silent, the idea of what they might - or might  _ not _ \- find looming over them, unspoken. When they reached the room they each took a seat in silence and began their search.

An hour went by without a word, the three becoming more and more grim as their search continued to prove fruitless, then -

“I found one!” Astrid cried, the two royals leapt to their feet to be by her side and peer into her view screen.

“Who?” Loki demanded.

“His name is Erik Iriksson, he’s… an apprentice, one hundred and… one years old.”

Loki crumpled back into his chair and Thor had to grip the table not to do the same. In their entire search they could only find a  _ boy _ , an  _ apprentice _ . And only just an apprentice at that, if he was only a hundred and one years old than he would have only been in training for  _ a year _ , one year out of the one hundred and fifty it took to become a fully fledged sorcerer.

“We will just continue the search.” Thor announced. They must have missed  _ something _ .

Loki’s eyes flashed, “To what purpose? I don’t know about you but I have been through my list  _ thrice _ . There is no one else. They’re all gone. The boy and I are the last of Asgard’s great sorcerers.”

Thor met Loki’s gaze and held it. “As the Valkyrie and I are the last of its famed warriors.”

Thor watched as Loki’s gaze turn from anger to fierce kinship, not as brothers but as the last of their great orders, acknowledging the pain in the other.

“We will rebuild.” Said Loki, fierce certainty in his voice.  _ Together _ , he said with his eyes.

“Yes.”  Thor agreed _ , together. _ He turned to Astrid who was looking up at them with wide eyes. “Will you fetch the others? We must convene to discuss our next moves.” The young woman nodded and hurried out of the room, leaving the brothers alone.

For a moment they simply contemplated each other, but even in his grief Loki was not one to leave Thor at peace. 

Eyes dancing with mirth he said, “So, what a lovely breakfast this morning.”

Thor glared. “Shut up.”

“You must have really enjoyed it, I know of your fondness for ginger.”

“ _You_ must not know me as well as you believe then, because I have not had ginger in five hundred years.”

“So you would not get sick of your favourite flavour, I’m sure. I remember the last time you ate ginger you were so eager you ate five roots raw in one sitting.”

Thor gritted his teeth. “Really now,  _ I  _ seem to recall those roots being disguised as sweets.”

Loki grinned. Thor glared. Outside someone screamed and the Hulk roared.

Without thought, Thor launched himself from the table and out the door, barreling in the direction the screams were coming from, Loki at his heels - and  _ gods there were children _ .

They rounded the corner only to be smashed into by - two little girls. A roar further down and he could see the Hulk thundering down the hall. A dagger flew past him and buried itself in the green beast's shoulder but that did nothing to even slow it.

_ Damn it _ , Thor picked up the girls, one in each arm and began in the other direction.

“We cannot run!” Loki cried, grabbing at his arm.

“We have not the time -”

“The  _ hull  _ is in that direction!”

_ Damn it all.  _ Throwing the sobbing girls at Loki, Thor turned back and charged toward the massive green giant.  _ I beat him once _ .

In a massive arena with no  _ children nearby _ .

Punching the hulk was once more like punching a wall, the Hulk was pushed by the force of it back down the corridor, smashing into the wall behind and bending it out of shape.

“Calm down!” Thor demanded, “I’m your friend you’re gonna get us all killed!”

The Hulk growled, jumping to his feet, but he didn’t move toward Thor.

“Move! Not angry at you!”

“C’mon Hulk, buddy, you don’t want to do his - they’re just kids!”

“Mean kids.” Hulk growled.

“Kids are mean sometimes, but that’s because they’re stupid! We’re not stupid, are we big guy?”

“Hulk.” He clenched his fists. “Not.” Thor allowed the electricity to run through his veins. “STUPID!”

And they crashed together, Thor was flown backwards, right into Loki then shoved off again and back toward the monster, he launched himself at the hulk, putting all his power into a punch aimed at the Hulk’s jaw that sent him stumbling back. But not enough to derail the big green fist that collided with his side, sending him flying out of Hulk’s path and into the wall of the corridor. Pain scorched from both sides and he couldn’t get a breath for lack of wind, he slid to the floor gasping for air and scrambled to his feet again but not quick enough. 

Thor could not even shout as he watched as a great green beast descended on the last of his kin and the children he held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about the short chapter today, I just felt like this was an appropriate break in the text and otherwise the chapter would be too jumbled in tone. I realize not much happened and I'm sorry about that. I do, however plan on releasing another chapter in the next few days.
> 
> Before you guys go, I've got a few things I want to talk about:
> 
> First, I'm looking for a beta because I suck at self editing so let me know if you want to help out.
> 
> Second, I've plotted this out... mostly. I know generally where things are going, just not small details. In any case I plan to post a chapter every Thursday and sometimes post extra chapters when I'm feeling enthusiastic.
> 
> Finally some background. One thing I've noticed about thorki is that most fics seem to have it as somewhat established, with them having sex at some point in the past. This is not the case in this fic. This fic is about how different their world is now, how nothing will ever be the same as it once was because it simply can not be, and how that will be OK. Before, Thor and Loki really did only see each other as siblings, but now, after so much has happened between them, they cannot go back to that.
> 
> Anyway I hope that's cool with you guys, I'll see you in a few days with Chapter 3 :)


	3. Gyda and No-Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor faces the Hulk with unexpected help and picks up some strays.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EXTRA CHAPTER!! (Such excitement)
> 
> Ugh, let me tell you guys this was a struggle to get in with enough time for me to have another one out on Thursday. I've definitely learned my lesson about extra chapters so don't expect them too often. Now If you notice a significant rise in the quality of this chapter you can thank my two amazing betas xthiamraekenx and astalitha for looking over the chapter when I asked and giving me awesome advice about plot stuff. Also thanks to everyone who left comments on Thursday, some of your have really, really interesting ideas. I know I didn't reply to everything but I read it all, I promise :)
> 
> Now go read!

The Hulk’s fists… stop.

They hung suspended there above Loki and the girls, frozen in mid-air. For a moment all parties involved could do nothing but stare in shock.

Then, with a blood-curdling roar of pure rage, the Hulk swung his fists back and attacked again, there’s a blinding flash and suddenly a  _ crack  _ in the air, hanging there in a way which Thor is almost  _ positive  _ cracks  _ don’t _ .

“Stop staring you buffoon he’s about to break through!” Loki’s cry shocked Thor into action.

He sprinted forward and seized a great foot, pulling the Hulk back with all his might, the Hulk twisted in his grip and all Thor saw was a flash of green and then darkness.

Two long, awful seconds later, Thor burst awake, his body hurled in the rear wall, pain searing through his nose, line of blood oozed down his face, tickling Thor’s lips and once again he can only watch as the green monster’s fists smash, again and again against the barrier Loki has put up.

Thor lurched to his feet and almost fell back down, he stumbled forward, regained his footing and -

Something yellow soared past him, hitting the Hulk’s back with a sick  _ splat _ ! across the Hulk’s huge back.

“FACE  _ ME _ YOU GREAT, GREEN BASTARD!”

The beast froze. Slowly both he and Thor turned back down the corridor. Astrid, dark eyes frenzied with a rage that rivalled the Hulk’s faced the Hulk’s rage with no sign of fear. The Hulk took one great step toward the pair, a second, Thor did not wait for the third.

They turned and ran as one, sprinting down the corridor, the great beast screaming rage behind them.  _ Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit _ , now he had him angry – at least he was away from the children but – Thor crashed into a corner and bounced off it, yanking the girl along with him – she was just as bad, and he didn’t have Loki here to protect her from doing something stupid while they fought –  _ think Thor, think _ !

Valkyrie! The Valkyrie had a way with Hulk, all he had to do was find her and, at the very least, she’d help him subdue Hulk. It would have been a solid plan if Thor hadn’t gone to grab a corner to swing them around into the next corridor – and missed. The built up momentum pushing them until they slammed straight into the far wall. Thor only had the time to cover Astrid with his own body before they were hit with all the force of a dozen bilgesnipe. Thor saw stars.

“WHY! EVERYONE! MEAN?!” Hulk demanded, punctuating each word with a bone-breaking blow, it was all he could do to keep conscious, he could  _ feel  _ Astrid whimpering from where she was pressed against him, she must be feeling it through him by now. This was it, any moment his spine would snap or a rib would puncture his lungs or heart, his skull would be crushed and he’d die.  _ I’ve failed them _ .

“Aww, what have the mean people done to you, big guy?”

_ What the Hel _ ?

The barrage stopped and Thor collapsed gratefully. He rolled off the girl into a sitting position propped up by the wall and gazed in fascination as this absolute  _ stranger _ just twisted the Hulk around his little finger.

The man was tall, with pale skin and dark hair and to Thor’s hazy vision he looked a little like Loki. He stood at the open door to what must have been his sleeping quarters and he was looking up at the Hulk with a sympathetic smile.

Hulk growled, “Mean people call me names. Thor is a BAD FRIEND!”

The man nodded sympathetically, “I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but you’re right, if he’s calling you names he should say sorry.”

The pair turned to him expectantly and Thor decided that he absolutely  _ must have  _ been transported to another dimension. It was the only explanation.

“I… I’m sorry, Hulk, that wasn’t cool.” He managed.

“Me too,” Astrid added quickly, “I really am sorry for throwing stuff at you, I just – I just got so angry…”

And somehow, the Hulk calmed down. He nodded sagely at Astrid. “’S’ok, I get angry too sometimes… I’m sorry too. But the mean girls have to say sorry, too.”

“Of course, of course,” Thor shoved himself to his feet and wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve, “what did they do, anyway?”

Hulk sniffed. “Laughed at me and called me stupid – NOT STUPID!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, my friend, we all know you’re not stupid. I think the King will go and have a chat with these girls and make sure they come to say sorry. Why don’t we go to your chambers and have a chat ourselves, eh? I’m Vigi, what’s your name?” The man, Vigi, said and the Hulk instantly calmed once more, smiling down at him. The pair wandered off down the hall talking, as if the Hulk hadn’t just gone on a rampage, leaving Astrid and Thor staring after them in shock.

“What…” Astrid started, not looking at Thor from her position propped against the wall.  “the Hel?”

Thor blinked a couple times, trying to come back to reality. Who  _ was  _ that guy and  _ how  _ had he done that? And why had he been so  _ calm _ about it? You see a great big monster attacking people and you just -? The sound of sharp panicked breaths on the floor pushed him out of his reverie.

“Are you alright?” He asked, crouching down in front of her, he tried to meet her still wild eyes but she just stared blankly past his shoulder. “Astrid!”

“No.” She gasped, “No-“ gasp “-I’m not-“ gasp “-I’m not-“ gasp “-I’m a-“ gasp “governess.” She was sobbing now, and shaking and gasping like she couldn’t stop

_ Shit _ .

“Hey, look at me,” he said and after a few moments of heavy breathing, her blood-shot gaze locked on his, “that’s it, Astrid, now I need you to watch me breathe and try to breathe with me, OK? In-“ he took a slow, audible breath in “-and out… in… and out…”

It took half a minute, but eventually Astrid was breathing semi-normally again.

“It’s OK, Astrid.”

“It’s  _ not _ ,” she sobbed, “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m not supposed to survive Ragnarok. I’m not a warrior – I’m not a fighter – I’m a  _ governess _ . But somehow I’m on a spaceship running from alien monsters and I just want to go  _ home.  _ I just want  _ my sister _ and my  _ mama _ but they’re gone it’s all gone and I’m on this stupid spaceship and I’ve been trying to not think about it like Papa but  _ everyone’s gone _ . Dagny and Mama and the two little boys that I taught and played with and watched  _ grow _ . And they were going into apprenticeships as warriors but now they’ll never be a hundred and I just-“ She cut off and looked away from him, “I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

“Hey,” Thor took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes, “It’s  _ ok _ , we’re all in the same boat, Astrid. All my friends are dead and gone, my parents as well, all I have left is Loki-“

“Isn’t that a shame.” Loki’s voice cut through, light and airy. Thor turned to glare at Loki coming down the corridor, the two girls in tow.

“Your Majesty, may I be excused?” Astrid’s small voice came from below him. Thor looked back down at her, he didn’t want to let her go but there were other things he had to deal with and she probably didn’t want to be caught crying in front of the children.

“Of course, I will see you this evening for supper.”

Astrid nodded, avoiding eye contact and hurried out of the corridor. Thor sighed and pushed himself to his feet, wincing at the pain of moving.

“Let’s look at you then.” Loki sighed, taking Thor’s chin in his hand and turning his face this way and that.

“I’m fine-”

“Your nose is broken.” Loki jabbed him in the ribs.  _ Hard _ .

“ARGH – what did you do that for-“

“A couple of your ribs are also. Here, let me set your nose.”

Thor sighed and yeah, that really  _ did  _ hurt. He would need to spend a few hours with a healer. Loki grabbed his nose and jammed it back into place, as he had a few times before. As with those times, this hurt way more than it should. Satisfied with his work, Loki stepped back from him.

“There, that should heal in a few hours, though you will need to go to a healer to get your ribs set.” A sudden flash of horror took over his face. “There  _ are  _ healers left, aren’t there?”

Thor waved his hand. “Yes, yes, I spoke to one yesterday, Alf something or other. I will find her shortly but right now.” He rounded on the girls, who shrank back at the look on his face

“Where,” he hissed, “are your parents?”

The taller girl glared up at him. “Valhalla.”

Thor growled, unable to feel sorry for them at this moment. “Then you shall face  _ my  _ wrath.  _ What  _ were you thinking?”

“He talks funny! How were we to know that he was an evil monster!” The small girl with dark hair noted.

“Oh and so it’s your business to go around calling people stupid  because they talk differently, is it? You didn’t think that your actions were cruel?”

“ _ He  _ was the one who just tried to smash us to nothing! What does it matter what we call evil people?”

“You’re an idiot.” Loki snarled at the girl and her eyes widened in pain. She looked to Thor for defence, the smaller girl just hung her head.

_ Good tactic _ , Thor thought, he opened his mouth to help get the point across and - he couldn’t do this. Was this the way a King acted? Odin would have called them fools in dignified fury, glared at them until they felt sorry for even existing. He would have never tried to teach them a lesson this way.

“You are,” Loki continued, and now the girls both looked on the verge of tears. “You saw a great big green person with bulging muscles and decided to  _ mock him _ . That was  _ stupid _ .”

“I’m  _ not  _ stupid.” The tall one snapped.

Loki gave a dramatic gasp. “Thor,” he said, horror in his voice, “she lashed back at us for hurting her – she must be evil!”

To this both girls said nothing. Thor sighed – he really had to stop doing that because  _ ow. _

“You must both go and apologize to the Hulk –  _ sincerely _ . Loki will take you while I go to find a healer. Think about what you have done and tomorrow you we will see about your punishment.”

The taller one’s eyes widened with indignation. “But-“

“Just leave it, No.” The smaller one snapped. “they’re right, we were  _ stupid _ and the mons – the Hulk was right too, we were mean.” The taller one glared at her.

“Now, you will do as I say and I will find you tomorrow, what are your names?”

“Her name is Gyda and I don’t have a name.” The tall one said. Thor and Loki blinked at each other.

“What did your parents call you?” Loki asked.

“They didn’t call me anything,” she raised her chin defiantly, “I don’t have a name.”

“I’ve just been calling her No-Name or No.” Gyda supplied, shrugging.

Thor sighed – gods  _ damnit  _ he needed to stop _ doing  _ that – he was too sore to deal with this shit.

“Just go. Loki, set up a council meeting for five hours from now, I should be fine by then.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Yes, my King.”

-

The healer, Alfdis, was a woman who dwarfed him so much in age that he couldn’t even try to guess how old she was. She had looked over him, tutting with disapproval, just as she had the day before and set him to lie on the table she had set up in the makeshift clinic. Her healing spells washed over him, golden and warm.

“If you come to me injured again tomorrow, I’m leaving your injuries to heal by themselves.” She warned as he left, hours later. He went to the dining hall and had some leftover fruit from lunch shoved into his hands by Fenja, who was already working on dinner.

He sat on a chair in the corner of the kitchen and spoke with her while he ate.

“I’m taking on some of the older orphans as help.” She said, “Give them something to do during the day and extra help is always appreciated.”

“Hm, funny you should say that – do you mind if I send two girls your way tomorrow? They’re in their late nineties, I think, and they definitely need things to do during the day.”

Fenja gave a sparkling laugh. “Trying to foist your troublemakers on me are you, Your Majesty? I’ve heard about those girls who provoked that large green creature. I think I will leave those ladies in your capable hands.”

Thor sighed, there went his plans to set them on dishwashing duty.

“Do you mind if I speak freely, sire?”

“Of course.”

Fenja pinched her lips into a worried frown. “That monster…people were talking about it at lunch, they say that it severely damaged four hallways. People are scared.”

Thor winced, and okay he probably should have seen that coming. If the people wanted Hulk off the ship Thor didn’t know what he would do, he didn’t want to be a king that simply made all decisions for his people, regardless of what they wanted.

Like Odin.

The thought surprised him a little. He hadn’t really given much thought as to what sort of King he would be, not recently at least. Before, he had just assumed that Loki would tell him what to do or that he’d know through some divine power. However, Loki was no longer reliable and even if he were, Thor didn’t want to just let others make his decisions for him. Maybe once they were on Earth, he could see how the Midgardians did it.

“Um, sir?” A little young girl tugged at his sleeve, pulling Thor blinked out of his reverie. He recognised her.

“Signy!” He said with a smile, “What is it, my little lady?”

The redhead blushed and giggled. “Prince Loki sent me to come get you for the meeting. It’s about to start.”

Thor nodded and ate the last of his fruit in one bite. “I’ll be off then, I’ll talk to you later, ladies.”

The hallways to the meeting room were grim indeed, metal morphed and twisted in the places Thor and Hulk had collided with the wall. When he entered the meeting room it was to stony silence, everyone was already seated in the places they had been the day before, but they all rose at his entrance.

Pulling on the cloak of his father, Thor strode into the room and took his place at the head of the table as if he belonged.

“Begin.”

“I want it gone.” Hilde was the first to speak, face set.

“Him.” The Valkyrie snarled.

“Peace, Valkyrie.” He had to be calm, he had to be reasonable. “And what do you suppose I do with him?”

“Kill him, last I checked attacking a member of the royal family was a capital punishment.”

“Don’t you think there’s been enough death in the last few days?”

“How long until there’s even more because of him? He attacked  _ children.” _

“Children who wouldn’t be alive today if he hadn’t protected us from the Great Wolf.” Heimdall added, Thor glanced to him gratefully.

“Couldn’t we just drop him off on a planet?” Astrid asked.

Thor shook his head, “I promised him that I would take him home to Earth, he is a hero of Asgard and deserves that much. He’s not too bad, really, those girls were foolish to mock him.”

Looks of horror passed over everyone’s face.

“He’s of Midgard?” Rolf, the carpenter, demanded.

“What kind of place are we going to?” Astrid said.

“He is an unusual case,” Loki put in, “he’s a Midgard scientist – a sorcerer – who accidentally bewitched himself.”

Thor was surprised Loki knew so much about Banner, but nodded in agreement.

“The point of the matter,” he said, “is that we  _ owe  _ the Hulk, we cannot simply abandon him on the next planet.”

“And if he put us in danger?” Hilde demanded, “Our  _ children _ in danger?”

“Why don’t we simply get Banner back?” suggested Loki, voice calm and reasonable. And - okay, yeah that might work. Banner hadn’t been completely certain that he would be gone forever.

“Hey yeah!” Valkyrie said, as if just remembering the other side of the Hulk. “What’s the deal with that transformation thing anyway?”

“What transformation?” Turid asked.

“He has two forms.” Loki supplied, “The Hulk may be a green creature of impossible strength and stamina, but his counterpart is just a normal Midgardian and much more reasonable. In the past he became Banner by default but from what I can gather Banner is having difficulty regaining control. I’ve been studying Banner for years, I may be able to figure out a way to bring him back and thus reduce the risk to us.”

Thor didn’t really know what to do with that, on the one hand he was grateful that Loki appeared to be on his side, on the other it was a shock to find out that Loki had watched Banner so closely for so long.

“In the meantime, I can keep an eye on him.” The Valkyrie added, “I’ll make sure he stays away from the kids.”

“Thank you Valkyrie, Loki, that is a sound plan,” Thor said, “but we must speak with the children - with everyone - make them aware that the Hulk must be left alone.”

“That won’t work with all the children.” Hilde warned, “Children can be foolish especially when they are trying to distract themselves from grief and loneliness. Some may even go after the Hulk because they have been warned against it and there are simply not enough people looking after the orphans to keep track of them all.”

An idea struck him then, remembering his conversation with Fenja he said, “What if we give them something to do? Fenja, the cook approached you about taking on some help in the kitchens, yes?”

Hilde nodded, “She did, she’s teaching a few young children to cook and run a kitchen, mostly girls.”

“Why don’t we continue with this idea, we want to give people jobs, why not give them some children to watch and train at times during the day.”

Hilde tapped her chin in thought. “That may take a while, we’d have to get people set up with what they’re going to do - and we still haven’t figured that out. What need is there of carpenter’s or farmers or tanners?”

“I’m actually making a list,” Korg piped up for the first time, “of jobs people could have, normal stuff, y’know? There’s actually quite a lot we need to do. I can finish that up tonight and bring the list tomorrow if that helps.”

Thor smiled, “That’s great, Korg. Is there anything else we must speak of?”

“We came across some grim news this morning.” Loki announced. A jolt ran through Thor - he had almost forgotten in all the activities of the day, he wished he could turn to see Loki’s face, hidden on his right side. “I am the last Sorcerer of Asgard.”

The table was silent in their horror, further down, Astrid hung her head, resigned.

“How - how…” Turid began but trailed off.

_ How can this be _ ? She might have wanted to ask, but she knew, they all already knew. The warriors were Asgard’s first line of defense, the sorcerer’s the second.

No one really knew what to say to that, and maybe there was nothing really to say. When faced with the fall of the order, that for a millennia had held the greatest of minds in the Nine Realms, silence seemed appropriate.

After a minute, Rolf spoke, “I have asked to speak with Fenja and Healer Alfdis after dinner this evening. We will attempt to come up with a rationing program so that we may last until the Novan colony in a month. It will be difficult after a week or so when the perishables begin to, well, perish.”

“Ah,” Loki started, “I believe I have a solution for that as well. I will need a few days but hopefully I will be able to freeze the food storage room, so you may take that into account when forming your plan.”

“Finally some good news.” Turid said, sounding relieved indeed.

“I think this will be enough for today, we shall reconvene once more tomorrow with our progress.” Thor announced, standing and revelling a little in the scramble they all made to stand up with him, he wondered if that would ever get old.

They departed the room and went their separate ways. Thor deep in thought, an idea ruminating in his mind, didn't notice anything around him.

“Your Highness?” Astrid’s voice came from behind him, she must have walked with him after they had left the meeting.

“Yes?”

“I,” Astrid hung her head in shame. “forgive me for earlier - I don’t know what came over me.”

A wash of fondness came over him then. “It’s okay Astrid, as you said, you’re not a warrior, you didn’t sign up to deal with any of this and even if you had there is no shame in it. I’ve known many warriors who reacted similarly in their first fight. What matters was your actions in the moment - you saved us without a thought to your own safety and that is commendable.”

She returned his smiles and for a drawn out moment they locked gazes… a bit  _ too  _ long. Thor broke the stare, clearing his throat.

“If you’ll excuse me,” He said, “I have things to do.”

“Of course, sire,” Astrid said, smile in her voice, “I will see you tomorrow.”

_ Damnit _ , Thor thought heading down the corridor at a jog and  _ absolutely not running away _ .

No really, he wasn’t, this was all a part of his Plan - plus he needed the exercise.

Back on Earth, and before that on Asgard, Thor made sure to train every day he didn’t battle. Every morning he would go for a run through the city before training for no less than an hour at the training grounds. If people were around he would spar, if not he would practice his drills. Very occasionally he would help a trainer with a demonstration for the apprentices. He missed it now, desperately.

Thor counted thirty laps of the ship before he had run the right distance, it felt good to feel the burn in his lungs after a run. He went to dinner afterwards, the food was fruit and meat stewed together and quite nice. He sat with Korg, Valkyrie and the Hulk and discussed battles and in the back of the mind he worried that he would fall back into old habits. He looked around the eating hall and at no point could he see Loki or the man, Vigi. He tried to ask Hulk about him but all he did was shrug and grunt, too busy munching on his food to vocalize.

He found Loki back in their chambers after dinner, haunched over the table they had, surrounded by papers and muttering to himself. Thor blinked at the change the rooms had gone through.

Even though they hadn’t asked for much, the Valkyrie and Hilde had given them a fairly large set of rooms. The front door opened to a lounge and dining room combination, long and thin with a large window on the far wall. There was a lounge set by the window, a long padded settee with a rich red fabric, a dark, low table set before it. At the far side of the room, directly opposite the door was a dining table that Loki had pushed against the wall and was now using as a desk.

Dividing the dining and lounge area door which lead to a large bedroom with its own window, it was relatively bare save for a bed in the centre, large enough for two people, adorned in deep blue sheets. Off of the bedroom there was a large en suite with a large shower sink and what he assumed passes for a toilet on this ship.

The thing that had caught his attention was the fact that apparently Loki had taken it upon himself to redecorate at some point during the day. Barely an inch of the harsh metal wall could be seen now, as vibrant fabrics had been hung up and draped everywhere, coloured rust red, green, forest green, silver, gold and brown. Some had patterns on them, some were simple blocks of colour, one, Thor recognised as a tapestry from the Great Library, a depiction of Yggdrasil and all its realms, another had on it dozens of gold runes, constantly circling and moving. The dining table had his papers spread out on in, but all other surfaces in the room were covered in books and strange artifacts, all obviously magical in origin.

It felt like the domain of a sorcerer. He didn’t know what to do between his rush of relief and despair. Relief because this obviously mean that Loki was planning to stay, despair because this was not a place Thor would ever belong.

“Are you going to stand at the door gawking for the next millennia, or will you come inside?” Loki snapped, no turning around.

Thor blinked out of his reverie and stepped inside the room as he was bidden to do. He was too tired to talk to Loki and not sure he’d be welcomed in any case, but there was one thing he had to do.

“I missed you at dinner.”

“I wasn’t at it.”

“I figured as much.” Thor said, walking up to the table and setting down his cargo in a clear spot, Loki glanced up in surprise.

“Eat,” Thor said, gently, “you may miss the days that food was readily available in the near future.”

Loki’s blue-green eyes searched his for a long time, Thor didn’t know why but he held his gaze anyway. Eventually Loki looked away and took the bowl. He didn’t thank him.

That night Thor woke with a jerk on the cold, metal floor. He groaned and tried to guess the time but came up empty. He didn’t feel that tired though, so that was something, he relieved himself and had a shower in the en suite like the day before and then went in search of the kitchen.

When he reached there, however, he only lingered long enough to determine that yes, Fenja and her cooks were working away, before grabbing a lift to one of the bottom decks.

He found the orphanage easily enough, and within minutes he had picked his way through the sleeping bodies to where No-Name and Gyda were huddled together on a mattress that was too small for the two. Sleeping, but not for long.

“Wake up,” He whispered, shaking the nearest limb gently, No-Name’s shoulder. The girl awoke with a jerk.

“What-”

“Be quiet. Wake Gyda, get dressed in comfortable clothes - make sure to wear pants.”

“But it’s the  _ middle of the night _ .” She hissed.

“No it’s the early morning, lights come on in an hour.”

“Can’t we do whatever it is in an hour?”

“Certainly-” the girl perked up “-if you wish to miss breakfast.” She sagged again, unhappiness written in her every feature.

Thor waited for ten minutes for the girls outside, and was beginning to think they’d fallen back asleep when they both stumbled blearily out into the corridor.

“What’s going on?” Gyda asked.

Not answering her, Thor eyed the girl’s clothes contemplatively. Gyda wore a pair of shorts that ended just below her knees, bright blue made stiff fabric, and a loose blouse. No-Name hadn’t bothered getting dressed, simply wearing her night clothes. It would do, for now, but he’d have to talk to a seamstress to have something more appropriate made.

“Follow me,” he said, “and keep up.” And set off at a slow jog. The girls groaned behind him but followed.

“Since you’re both so keen to get yourselves into trouble,” Thor started amiably, “I am going to teach you to get yourselves out of trouble. Every morning, before breakfast, we will run laps of the ship to increase your stamina.”

“ _ What _ ?” No-Name cried from behind him.

“Shut...  _ up _ , No,” Gyda said, breathless“You’ve already… got us into enough trouble.”

“In the evenings,” Thor continued, ignoring them, “before dinner, you will report to me in a training room. I will set up today and I will teach you drills in fighting. For now, you will both be my apprentices. When you can run thirty laps of this ship without pause in the hour before breakfast, I will let you choose whether or not to continue.”

That day they ran three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! what do you guys think??? Everyone's picking up children, I swear XP
> 
> Just for a bit of reference, I headcanon asgardians ageing as sort of an exponential curve, so the older they become the slower they age. So at five they become a toddler, at eleven they're ~4 at 20 they're about 9. At 100, when they reach the age for apprenticeship they're about 12. Gyda and No are in their nineties so it's a bit early for apprenticeship but physically and mentally they're both about 12.
> 
> People's ages:  
> Thor ~1000 (mid-twenties)  
> Loki ~1000 (mid-twenties)  
> Heimdall ~30 000 (mid 40s)  
> Astrid ~700 (20ish)  
> Hilde ~15 000 (mid 30s)  
> Turid ~20 000 (late 30s)  
> Fenja ~40 000 (late 40s)  
> Rolf ~40 000 (late 40s)
> 
> I know, radical numbers but let's say i took Thor's "Didn't my father kill you like, 500 000 years ago?" think to heart. These people are OLD.
> 
> Next Chapter: Loki meets the apprentice and finds him wanting, Thor gets exciting news Korg hands out jobs.
> 
> My tumblr: http://iamjustalways.tumblr.com/


	4. Loki I - The Sorcerer's Apprentice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Thursday another chapter! This one's my first Loki POV I hope you think I do him justice!
> 
> I'd like to thank my lovely betas, astalith & simplykayley (they've changed their tumblr name since last week :D ). They've been really helpful when I was cutting close to deadlines :)
> 
> Anyway without further ado, here's chapter 4!

For most of his life, Loki woke up with the light. The early morning was his favourite time, when everything was quiet and peaceful and only the most dedicated were awake. People often thought the domain of a trickster was in the middle of the night, when the world was dark and the only things that could be seen were shadows, but Loki knew that the dull grey of the almost-morning was the time when a wanderer was truly let be. Thor, on the other hand, would often refuse to rise until the morning hours were finishing.

However, for some reason in the past few days of sharing a bed with the man, Loki had woken to an empty bed. This morning was no different, the ship’s automatic lighting system flickered alive and with it Loki, spread out alone in the middle of the bed, soft, blue sheets warm on his bare skin, his bed partner nowhere in sight.

Not that he minded, of course, it was a blessing to be able to go about his morning unhindered by the oaf. But it was not what he was expecting and it niggled at Loki, more and more as the days went on. Once was a singularity, twice was a coincidence, and if a lifetime of creating ‘coincidences’ had taught Loki anything, it was that there was no such thing.

Not that it  _ mattered _ . He didn’t care what Thor did during the mornings. Loki huffed in annoyance and rolled out of the bed, banishing all thoughts of Thor from his mind.

Out in the hallways people nodded to him cheerily in passing. He didn’t know what these people had to be so cheery about, or why they chose to direct it to  _ him _ of all people. They’d been doing it for days now, as if he wasn’t who he was. Loki was starting to worry that all the fear he’d cultivated over the years had all been undone. Had people really taken his joking  _ ‘your saviour is here _ ’ line to heart?

He was almost to the kitchens when he ran into Thor. Or rather Thor ran into him as Thor was literally running, the two idiot girls from the day before huffing behind him, red and rumpled.

“Loki!” Thor cried jovially, stopping in front of him, not a hair out of place or the slightest hint of breathlessness. The girls behind him both immediately doubled over, hands on their knees, gasping for breath. For a moment Loki could only gape before it all clicked into place.

“Oh gods, Thor please don’t tell me that you’ve decided to  _ train them  _ as punishment.”

Thor’s grin turned a little sheepish and he moved to scratch his short hair. “I figured starting them on apprenticeships would keep them too tired to stir up trouble and if that didn’t work it might prepare them a little more to face it.”

Loki held back a sigh,  _ of course he did _ . Oh well, there was no harm in it and if Thor could train these girls into decent warriors it would go a little toward rebuilding the ranks of Asgard’s soldiers.

“Well, come into breakfast,” he said, shaking his head. “I think if you train them any more today they may be sick.” The girls perked up at this and looked hopefully to Thor who shrugged and gestured in the direction of the dining hall, they didn’t need to be told twice.

Thor laughed as he watched them scurry off, clearly enamoured with them already. He was too soft.

“Shall we?” Thor asked.

Loki just rolled his eyes and started after the girls, making sure to stick to Thor’s right side out of spite.

That morning the cooks were serving more of that strange fruit they served for lunch the day before. Loki had to admit that he was slightly disappointed it wasn’t the ginger concoction again, watching Thor squirm was always amusing. Loki took his fruit in silence and didn’t bother to wait for Thor, who would surely strike up a conversation with the cook. He found an empty table and began eating.

After a minute or two, Thor joined them, the girl, Astrid in tow. Loki smiled. 

“Hello,” Astrid greeted, smiling back and sitting across from Loki while Thor sat to Loki’s right.  _ Damn _ .

“Good morning, Lady Astrid,” Loki greeted cordially, “how are you feeling this morning? I know your confrontation with the Hulk must have been shocking.” The smile fell a little in the girl’s eyes but remained plastered easily on her face.  _ Interesting _ .

“Oh, I’m fine, thanks to the King,” she glanced up at Thor fondly, “all I did was throw something and run, he took all of the Hulk’s fury on himself.”

Loki grinned sharply in response, “Still, you did well to throw that fruit, you saved the girls and I.”

She blushed prettily and glanced at Thor again. “Thank you, Prince Loki.”

_ So that is her play _ , Loki thought. He had suspected yesterday but it was too early to tell, Loki was almost surprised someone aimed for the queenship so soon after Asgard’s fall, but Loki had been too intimate with the scum of the universe for too long to be surprised by people anymore.

He wondered if she’d realised what she was doing yesterday, when she saved them from the Hulk. If there was one way to Thor’s heart is was by being a woman brave enough to forgo her own safety.

In any case, he’d have to keep an eye on her, if her ploy began to work Loki would have to figure out a way to destroy her with none knowing of his hand in the matter. If she was cunning enough to come up with this plot within a day of her home being destroyed, she would likely be cunning enough to see Loki as a threat if she ever did become queen.

They filled the rest of breakfast with amicable chit-chat which Loki mostly ignored. He had other, more important matters to focus on.

“Are you going to seek out the apprentice sorcerer today, Loki?” Thor asked when they have all almost finished their plates of fruit.

Loki hums in confirmation and swallows before continuing. “After I have finished breakfast. He lives on the lower decks with his elder brother, I will find their rooms and ask if he wishes to continue his apprenticeship with me.” He paused to shudder. “I never thought I would be seeking out an apprentice,” he said, vaguely disgusted at the whole notion.

Thor laughed, “The idea of you with an apprentice does amuse me.”

“I’m pleased it amuses one of us, dear brother.” Loki huffed, rising from his seat. “I’d best go find him before I come to my senses.”

The brothers Iriksson had been assigned a room in the servants’ quarters on the lowest deck of the ship, as there were only the two of them and one was a child. Down in the bottom of the ship the corridors were narrower and the lights fewer between. They would have to keep an eye on the morale of those assigned to the rooms here, the cramped conditions of the ship would become dangerous in the months to come when the horrors they were fleeing from were forgotten and people were beginning to wonder why they had to tough it out down here while the others above got luxury.

Finding the door he was looking for, Loki knocked.

“Hang on!” called a voice muffled inside, there was a thump and a yelp and the door was ripped open by a disgruntled looking young man with wheat blonde hair. And no shirt.

“What do you w-” He stopped abruptly as he noticed who was at the door, eyes going wide. “Y-Your Majesty - what are you - why are you - how can I help you?” he stammered.

“The proper form of address is Your Highness, actually,” Loki said airily, stepping past the man and into the small room, eying the clothes strewn about the floor with distaste. “Only the King and the Queen should be addressed with Your Majesty.”

“Oh - er - begging your pardon, Your Highness. I - I’ve never had to know how to address a prince before, you see…”

Ignoring his apologies, Loki finished surveying the room and turned back to the young man, “I am looking for your brother, do you know where he is?”

The man blinked, “Erik? What would you want with him -” a look of horror crossed his face “- he hasn’t done something wrong, has he?”

Loki raised an eyebrow at this, was the boy a delinquent? “Not that I’m aware of. He was an apprentice sorcerer, wasn’t he?”

His knowledge seemed to surprise the man, despite knowing that Erik had given this information to the census only days before.

After a moment the man shut the door, probably deciding Loki wasn’t about to leave.

“Yeah, Erik was apprenticed to our Aunt Katla, not for long though.”

Loki blinked. “Katla Harekdottir?”

“Uh, yeah, did you know her, Your Maj - Highness?”

Katla had a cutting smile and a sharp laugh. She helped him with his work on the paths of  _ Klindis Jür,  _ his first masterwork. Before, she had been his closest friend.

“No,” Loki said.

“Oh, uh, okay,” the man stammered, “well Erik just went to the washroom, he should be back in a few minutes, if you’d like to wait. Um, would you like to sit down?” He gestured to the small table situated in the corner, Loki contemplated it a moment and took his offer.

“So what do you want him for anyway?” The man asked after a minute of silence. Great. A talker. And not a very bright one if he couldn’t figure out why Loki was here.

“I’d like to offer to continue his apprenticeship.”

The man blinked. Before he could say anything more, the door to the room slid open revealing a boy. He was tall for his age, almost the same height as his elder brother already, with equally blond hair and freckled skin. He stopped at the door at the sight of Loki and glanced frantically at his brother.

“You must be Erik.” Loki said, attempting to sound welcoming.

By the boy’s petrified stare, he guessed he was unsuccessful. Oh well.

“I’m -”

“You’re Prince Loki.” The boy blurted, then turned an astonishing shade of red. 

Loki raised an eyebrow. “Yes. I -”

“He’s here to take you as his apprentice.” The other brother interrupted him.  _ Again _ .

“Might we speak in private, Erik?” said Loki, rather than give in to his sudden violent urges. Thor would be proud.

Ew.

“Um - o - okay…”

A quick, sharp smile. “Excellent,” He said and strode out of the room, the sound of footsteps behind him telling Loki that the boy followed. They didn’t go very far, a small communal lounge just down the corridor would suffice for this conversation.

As soon as they stopped, the boy spoke up. “Look I don’t know what you expect from me.  I wasn’t an apprentice for very long.”

“I am aware. You are, however, the only person on ship with even the slightest background in the field.”

Erik paled, took a step back and sat down on the couch behind him. “That’s not possible.”

“And yet it is true.”

Erik shook his head, “Still, I can’t - I can’t be your apprentice.”

“Why not? We are the last of the Great Order, I know you wished to train under your aunt but -”

“That’s just the thing - I didn’t.” The boy cut in, stubborn set to his jaw that was all too familiar. “I never wanted to be a sorcerer. My Mum was a sorcerer and so was my aunt and my grandmother and they wanted a girl to continue on the family tradition. They got me.”

Loki’s heart fell. “Let me guess, they decided you might as well go into sorcery despite being a boy and you’ve always resented them for it. Wanted to be a warrior, did you?”

The boy glared up at him. 

An old bitterness took it’s hold on Loki’s heart, then, and the hope he hadn’t thought he’d held was snuffed out. 

“Far be it from me to force you to do something you do not wish to do.” He said and the boy sagged in relief. “But I will need your assistance in a spell I wish to cast over the food supplies so that they do not spoil. It will take more energy than I am capable of and needs another caster for part of it. It should not trouble you too much, a basic modifier on a standard sealing charm. I will give you the words to memorize and we can do it tomorrow morning. After that you need never practice a woman’s skill again.”

Erik shifted uncomfortably. “I, uh, I don’t actually know how to do a sealing spell.”

And it was all too much for Loki. Growling, he stepped forward, grabbed a fistful of the boy’s collar and  _ yanked  _ him up to Loki’s eye level.

“ _ What _ ,” Loki hissed, deadly anger flashing across his gaze, “do you know, then?”

“I - I know about harnessing my energy! I didn’t - I just wanted to get kicked out - please let me go!”

Loki did as he asked, letting the boy fall to the floor.

“Listen to me  _ very carefully _ ,” he said, “we are going to go to my quarters and I am going to teach you about sealing spells and you will  _ practice them _ for the next two days. Then we are going to preserve the food so that we do not all  _ die  _ and then I never want to lay eyes on you  _ ever again _ . Are we clear?”

On the floor, the boy nodded furiously. Loki spun on his heel and stalked out of the lounge, the boy scrambling after him. They walked in silence through the corridors of the ship, drawing curious glances wherever they went. At his and Thor’s quarters he typed the unlocking combination but made sure to keep the code hidden. Thor, who was seated at one of the settees reading a tablet, looked up at their entrance.

“You must be Erik,” Thor said, addressing the boy who stood in the entrance, eyes wide at the sight of the King.

Loki rolled his eyes. “Yes, this is Erik, do not worry yourself, Thor, you will not be seeing much of him. Come in boy.” Still staring at the King, Erik took a hesitant step into the room and the door slid shut behind him.

Thor frowned at Loki’s words, eyes flitting from Loki, who was rifling through his notes and the boy, pale and shamefaced at the entryway. “Then you will not be training him after all.” he said eventually, voice heavy with disappointment. The boy flinched at his words.

Loki was glad, for a brief moment, that Thor was starting to use that brain of his, it was a relief to be around someone who bothered to put two and two together. Then he remembered that this was Thor he was thinking of and immediately dismissed the notion. Finally he found the paper he was looking for and handed it to the boy, who took it only hesitantly.

“You will need to memorize this.” He said.

Erik frowned down at the paper and Loki didn’t know it was possible to be so disappointed in something as he was now.  _ This _ was Katla’s apprentice? Her nephew?

“You don’t know how to read runic, do you?” He asked, knowing the answer.

The boy didn’t meet his eyes when he shook his head. “I was trying to get kicked out. Sorcery is for women, I’d be no good at it anyway.”

He wanted to weep and curse and scream and rebel against the world, but experience told him that doing so would only cause him to suffer more. Instead Loki collapsed onto the settee next to Thor and cradled his face in his hands.

“Look, I told you, magic’s not my thing, my aunt was the sorcerer -”

“Then kindly fetch her for me,” Loki snapped, bringing his head up to glare at the child before him. “Oh that's right , she's dead, out floating in space amidst the corpses of all the other people who could have possibly assisted me with this task. Why don't you do everyone on this ship a favour and go take her place. Or Signis the Wise or Bori the Serpent-Stealer or Idunn the Ever-Young. Of any one of the dozens of sorcerers that could have survived Ragnarok why was it you - Erik the Useless!”

The boy reared back and his eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know! Okay? You’re right it should have been one of them - it should have - I just - “

“ENOUGH!” Thor boomed, startling the sorcerer and the apprentice. “We do not have the luxury to look at the would-haves and the could-be’s. Whether you like it or not, boy, you are one of the last of the ancient order of sorcerers, an honour that you  _ will _ do justice.”

He turned his gaze to Loki then.  _ I am sorry for your loss _ , his eyes said,  _ but pull it together _ .

Loki had not been really chastised by Thor in - well he’d like to say a long time. He sighed, and rose to his feet. Once, Before, he had told himself that the day Thor Odinsson started making sense was the day Loki would accept his orders. Loki was not a man of his word, but maybe he could be.

“If we are lucky,” he said to the boy, “and we work hard, we may be able to achieve this feat. Come -” he gestured to the table he had been using as a work station “- let us begin by translating this spell.”

Working with an apprentice was never something that Loki found appealing and it certainly lived up to his expectations. Having to explain the simplest concepts to a boy who seemed to take forever to understand was awful, and the dullest thing he’d ever done. After only a few hours they were both far to irritable to continue.

“It must be time for lunch, surely.” Loki said, pushing back from the table with barely restrained violence. 

Erik groaned and thumped him head on the table. “I don’t  _ care  _ if it is or if it isn’t, can we take a  _ break _ .”

Much to everyone’s relief, lunch was indeed being served.

“Would you like to sit with us, Erik?” Thor asked as they lined up for food.

The boy blanched. “Uh, no, sir, my brother’s probably wondering about me.”

Thor laughed and Loki almost sighed in relief. “Meet me back at my rooms in an hour’s time.” He instructed before the boy rushed off.

“So,” Thor said when they had reached their usual table, amusement laced in his voice.

“Shut up.” Loki warned, but his heart wasn’t really in it.

Thor went on, ignoring Loki soundly. “He was… an interesting child.”

Loki bit viciously into his bread loaf and did not speak. Thor chewed thoughtfully on his own bread, looking around the dining hall as he did so.

“Do you think he will continue with his apprenticeship.” He asked.

“Probably not,” Loki snapped, “why would he wish to continue training in a  _ woman’s profession _ .”

Thor sighed and turned to face Loki with his good eye, the mischief god felt a thrill of petty satisfaction at how far he had to do it.

“Have I ever apologised to you for that?”

The mechanisms behind the working of the universe suddenly stopped and spontaneously reordered themselves into something that looked the same but really,  _ really  _ wasn’t.

“ _ What _ ?”

“I used to belittle sorcery and encourage its belittling. It was foolish and wrong of me and I am truly sorry for it.”

Lying on the floor of the Grandmaster’s ship docks, writhing in agony, Loki had listened to Thor’s words to him and for the first time felt a spark of  _ hope _ . Hope that the future could be more than bleak and lonely, that he could be more than just the king of the scum. He heard Thor’s challenge to be better and for the first time in a long time, wanted to  _ meet it _ . When he had been rescued by the escapees, Loki brought them to face the end of all things because of that spark. He followed Thor’s orders and brought about Ragnarok on that hope. He had secreted himself aboard the ship on that hope, the hope that he could be more, that he could be better, that he could try again.

In that moment, Loki realised that despite doing all of this on that spark of hope, he hadn’t honestly expected it to ever succeed. But here he was, sitting to Thor’s right side, with the respect of Asgard’s people, trying to help them all survive out of the  _ goodness of his heart _ . Listening to Thor  _ apologise _ to him.  _ Succeeding _ .

It made a warm, foreign feeling swell in his breast and Loki allowed a genuine, if small smile to grace his lips.

“Thank you, Thor.”

They held gazes for a time more, sharing a moment that they both knew too significant for a crowded dining hall.

Thor broke the gaze first, twisting to yet again search the crowded dining hall.

“What  _ are  _ you looking for?” Loki huffed, amused despite himself.

“Well,” Thor started, still craning his neck, “I’ve been looking for Vigi - the man who calmed the Hulk down yesterday. I figured mealtime would be the easiest time to find him.”

"Maybe he's avoiding you - big, tall, muscly king - I wouldn't want to speak to you."

Thor grinned, “Oh? Then why do you spend so much time with me?”

“To keep everyone else at bay, of course. Being around you is a well known people repellent.”

“Is that the only reason?” Thor demanded with mock pain.

“Well, no,” Loki admitted, “it’s vaguely interesting to watch that Astrid woman throw herself at you.”

At this Thor shut his eye and quietly groaned. “She does  _ not _ throw herself at me.” He said, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself.

“Whatever you say, dear brother.” Loki laughed and returned to his meal.

After a while they were joined by the Valkyrie and the Hulk, who both eyed Loki suspiciously. Loki merely grinned at them. Not too long later Heimdall joined the table, looking as grim and all-knowing as usual.

“I bring news of our journey, sire.” He said, quasi-monotonous and boring. As usual.

“What is it?”

“There is a planet that we fly by a week’s journey from here, it has no intelligent civilization, but the ship’s computer says that the planet is popular among hunters for its big game. The beasts are known as  _ kovick  _ and are known for their hearty meat and soft furs.”

Thor perked up like a child receiving sweets and even Loki was interested. If they could utilize these animals properly they would have fresh food, bones for carving into basic tools, the fur could make string and the pelts could be extra beddings or armour or clothing. This was a valuable find indeed.

After lunch they parted ways. Thor apparently wished to use one of the spare rooms as a training area so he, the Hulk and the Valkyrie set off in search of an appropriate venue. Loki watched the people eye the Hulk restlessly, some only curious, others with outright distaste. He would have to learn the names of these people, if any idiot got it into their heads that they could destroy the beast, they would kill them all.

He had also noticed a divide in the people, with Asgardians and former gladiators not socializing with each other much, if at all. It was too early yet to see if this would turn into a problem but Loki needed to begin walking among the people in disguise. Learn the names and faces of the troublemakers, gauge the mood of the people.

But today he had more pressing matters to deal with.

Now that the boy had at least a basic understanding in the runic alphabet, Loki was going to attempt to teach him a sealing charm. This would determine whether he was really capable of sorcery, and it was beyond Loki how the boy had managed to spend an entire year as an apprentice without channeling his magic in some way. If the boy could not do this, he would never be capable of magic and Loki had not the time to train someone else from scratch - they needed to freeze the food soon or they would die.

Telling the boy this, he watched the blood drain from his face.

“No pressure or anything.” He grumbled.

“Ignore the pressure, the task is what is important. What I need you to do first is create a sigil with the phrase ‘to cut, to lack breath, to close’. The simplest way to do this is to write out the runes and compress them together with the phrase in mind. Most sorcerers get to the point where they can pluck the correct sigil from their minds instantly, but this will suffice.”

“What do you mean compress the runes? And why that phrase? It doesn’t sound like it would have anything to do with sealing.”

Loki resisted the urge to sigh. They were reasonable questions. “Try to combine them while still maintaining meaning to you, draw patterns of them together, a picture using their components. Sigils are often much more useful than their root phrases, the act of creating a sigil focuses your mind on the meaning of it, allows you to understand it at a fundamental level, this is incredibly important for magic work and for novices the act of creating a sigil helps them achieve the right focus. On the other hand sigils are smaller than phrases, which can become incredibly complicated. I once spent three years creating three sigils to sum up a spell of over a hundred pages.

“Now the phrase doesn’t have to be unique to you, it has to be incredibly specific. The phrase for sealing always has the components ‘to cut, to close’, it’s an old spell, developed by the All-Father aeons ago. I modified it slightly with a common life-detection spell, ‘to lack breath’ meaning that anything living will not be affected by the seal, allowing people to leave and enter the storage area as they please. Creating spells is incredibly complicated and dangerous, doubly so if creating spells from scratch. To create a single spell is considered a masterwork.”

“Have you ever created a spell?”

Loki grinned. “I have created twelve.” He was gratified when Erik seemed appropriately awed. Most people upon hearing the same would be disappointed, as if creating twelve masterworks was a paltry feat. True his real number of masterworks was nearly triple that, but that wasn’t for people to know.

Curiosity apparently satisfied, Erik took a pen and Loki’s offered notebook and wrote down the phrase of the spell, checking with the translation book Loki had given him. He then started combining and reshaping the runes intently, tongue poking out from between his lips. Loki lounged on the settee while he waited for the boy, reading from one of the many books he’d managed to transport into his storage dimension before Surtur destroyed Asgard.

Finally, Erik cleared his throat to get Loki’s attention. 

“I think I’m done,” he said.

Loki rose to examine the boy’s work and was begrudgingly impressed. He had expected something chunky and crude, but the sigil before him - and it was certainly a working sigil - was all thin curving lines and curled elegance, it reminded him of a small bluebird in a golden cage.

He looked down to the nervous boy in surprise. “Are you an artist?”

Eric’s freckled cheeks turned crimson. “Of course not! Art is a woman’s skill. I’m awful at it - was that your way of telling me it won’t work because -”

“Peace,” Loki soothed, “it will serve well. Now go to the wall and draw it there, keeping its meaning in your mind as you do.” His words appeased the boy and he took the ink pot and brush Loki offered and started the process of replicating his work. Only when his back was turned did Loki allow a frown to cross his features.

This was - unexpected. There was something happening here that he was not seeing and he hated the feeling. If this was what Thor always felt like, no wonder he had been such an arse growing up. A sigil of that quality was not the work of an oaf of a boy with no interest in what he was doing. It was natural, beautiful, an interpretation of the phrase that showed  _ understanding  _ on a fundamental level. It was unquestionably the work of an ameteur, with superflous lines and shapes that an accomplished sorcerer would never include, but it showed a potential for  _ talent _ . Loki could barely remember his first sigils, over nine hundred years past, but he knew that they had been similar.

If this wasn’t some kind of fluke and the boy truly had this sort of capability, what must he have gone through to look at his talents with such hate?

When the sigil was painted onto the door, the real challenge began.

Accessing the magical pathways in your body for the first time was an incredible feat of will. One that only the most dedicated could achieve, and the most dedicated, Erik Iriksson was not. To open your body’s natural channels one had to focus inwards and  _ search _ . It was impossible to describe to someone who had never done it, but try Loki did.

“What do you mean I have to sit and  _ feel _ ?” Erik demanded with horror after a half hour of explanation. “That doesn’t  _ mean  _ anything! What am I supposed to be feeling?”

“Everything!” Loki cried, “Feel your skin on your muscles and the blood running through your veins, feel your breath filling your lungs and the ache in your behind, feel your happiness and your sadness and your memories and your mind and  _ yourself _ . And once you feel everything, feel your magic and  _ pull _ .”

“That makes no  _ sense _ !”

A knock at the door broke their argument. Loki threw his hands up in the air and fought the urge to scream, but went to open the door. Behind it was a little girl with bright red hair and freckles and a pleased smile, the one he had sent to find Thor the day before who was clearly enjoying her position as messenger.

“Hello!” she said, grinning.

“Hello.” Loki replied, forcing a smile, the girl either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“King Thor asked me to come get you for the meeting.”

Loki took a deep, calming breath. “Thank you, miss.” He said gallantly. The little girl did a curtsey and ran off down the corridor.

Before leaving, he turned back to Erik, sitting glumly just inside the door.

“I will be gone for a while, I know it’s confusing but I cannot explain it to you until you have done it. It’s like explaining the colour green to someone who has been blind since birth. You  _ will  _ get it, I know you can. Just sit and try to  _ focus _ .” He was about to leave when a thought occurred to him. “Oh - and if you do succeed before I return you can reopen the door by breathing on the sigil but don’t leave until I return or it will take hours for me to break in.”

The walls leading up to the council room were still as savagely twisted as the day before, the first permanent marks of their stay aboard this ship. He wondered what other marks would become daily sights before this trip was through. He met Astrid gazing at the wall which she and Thor had been beaten against, the indent of her small body clear for all who knew to look for it.

“Afternoon, my lady,” he greeted, her jump in response giving Loki no small pleasure.

“Oh, Prince Loki, you surprised me.”

“I have that effect on people,” Loki said conspiratorially, giving her his most winning smile and a salacious wink for good measure.

Confused, her eyelids flickered as her eyes drew wide.

“Shall we?” Loki said, gesturing toward the meeting room, smirk firmly plastered on his face. She smiled hesitantly and followed him down the hall. Most of the others were already in the room, with only the couple and Heimdall missing.

When Thor saw him, he smiled, though he didn’t stop speaking to the Valkyrie. Something warm fluttered in Loki’s chest and he couldn’t help but give a small smile in return.

“What.” It was his turn to be surprised at Astrid’s flat question. He blinked down at her where she was staring up at him, mouth agape.

“What?” he asked in turn.

She cocked her head and worked her jaw as if she couldn’t quite comprehend something, after a moment she said.

“Nothing. It’s nothing. I’m seeing things.” She met his eyes again with a sweet smile and a moment of understanding passed between them. She knew he knew. She knew he was a threat.

Loki’s eyes narrowed. Damn. And he thought he’d been doing so well.

“We’d best take our seats,” he said cordially.

“Of course, my prince.”

Once everyone was seated Thor indicated to Korg.

“Shall we begin?” Thor asked.

-

Here was Korg’s plan:

“So I was sitting around the other day pondering the ephemeral nature of the universe when I realised that I had way too much free time on my hands. And considering that I used to spend most of my days sitting around in a featureless circle that’s really saying something.

“So instead of contemplating the fleeting nature of existence, I started wondering what I could do. So naturally I wondered what Miek was doing.

(“Naturally,” Loki agreed, grinning at the kick in the shin Thor gave him in retaliation.)

“‘Miek,’ I said, because Miek was sitting next to me, ‘what do you do around here?’ And Miek, well Miek kind of shrugged, y’see Miek didn’t have anything to do either. So Miek and I went searching for something to do.

“Now we got to asking around, and we realised more and more that people didn’t have anything to do. And that didn’t really make sense, y’know? Because Miek and I, we’ve been on a couple space ships before and normally they have a  _ lot  _ of people working on them but for some reason this ship didn’t. And then it struck me! These little meetings we’ve been having, they’re really the only meetings  _ anyone  _ is having on running the ship and we - well honestly we have no idea what we’re doing. No offense or anything.

“Anyway, so I got to thinking about what jobs we would need and how we should probably set up some kind of clear hierarchical system. Of course we already have Thor and his husband -”

“I’m sorry -  _ what _ ?” Thor demanded.

“Y’know,” Korg gestured to Loki, “that guy. Aren’t you guys married yet? I thought for  _ sure.. _ .”

“We’re not  _ together _ ,” Loki yelped. The pair looked at each other in alarm.

“Huh.” Korg shrugged. “But you are, like, second in command around here, yeah?”

Loki glanced at Thor awkwardly, this was not something they were really prepared to address.

“Yes,” Thor said after a moment. “He is. But we are  _ not  _ together.”

“If you say so brah. Anyway as I was saying after Thor and Loki, no one’s really clearly in charge, y’know? So I thought about how things were run on other space ships I’ve been on, Miek helped, of course, and I came up with a list of jobs that people could have and who those people could report to - a clear command structure is vital to the running of any vessel as Miek likes to say.

“On a ship you normally have some sort of leader or captain. That’s gonna be Thor as King, everybody answers to him and he’s in charge of what the ship does overall. Then you have First Officer, it’s called, that would be Loki, I think. First Officer is like second in charge, everyone answers to him except for Thor, who he answers to.

“Then you have heads of different departments: Medicine, Supplies, Engineering, People, Piloting, Defence, Communications, that sort of thing. And then some of the departments would have sub-departments, so the Head of Supplies may oversee the Head Cook and the Head of Maintenance.”

“What would each of these positions entail?” Turid asked, she was taking notes on her monitor.

“Oh, well Head of Medicine would be in charge of healing people and would be in charge of all the other doctors or healers or whatever you call them.”

“Lady Alfdis would work well in this position,” Astrid commented, “She’s basically taken it up as it is.” Turid wrote down a note.

“Then the Supplies Head would keep stock of what we have and who gets what, I think good ol’ Rolf here has already taken up the position.” Everyone nodded in confirmation and Rolf blushed. “He could be in charge of Fenja, who we could ask to officially be Head Cook. I’m pretty sure she’ll accept it. Then we’d need someone to be Head of Maintenance also under Rolf and they’d make sure everything stayed clean and functioning.

“Now because this is a space ship, we’d probably need someone to maintain the engine and all that. I asked around with the ex-gladiators and no one really knew how to run a ship but while I was down in the engine room looking for a manual I ran into this nice bloke named Sigurd. Apparently he was some sort of Blacksmith on Asgard? Anyway according to him the engine’s not that hard to figure out but I think he’s just one smart cookie because personally I’d have difficulty figuring out the engine even with a manual. I figured we could talk to him about looking after the engine and maybe finding other blacksmiths to help him?”

Everyone agreed that this sounded reasonable so Korg continued.

“Now there is one job I kind of made up, because I’ve never heard of it on a spaceship but I think it’d be useful and that’s People’s Officer. That’d be someone to just make sure that people are happy and getting what they need. If anyone has complaints they can go to the People’s officer and this person can be in charge of stuff like schools and the running of the orphanage and stuff. So under them would be the head of the orphanage and any teachers or child carers and people who deal with housing and wellbeing and stuff.

“Another big thing we need to deal with are pilots. At the moment to my understanding it’s only Phora and the dude with the freaky eyes - no offence mate - that are working as pilot’s and if I were them I’d probably be strongly considering revolution. So we probably need to find more pilots.

“Then of course we need someone in command of defence. I would suggest Scrapper-142 for the role, I’ve seen her fight and man, she’s vicious. I also humbly offer myself as her second in charge and a few of the other ex-gladiators would be happy to help out.”

This, it seems, was also reasonable.

“Finally you’d need people working on communications, intercepting any transmissions we get and the like.”

“I can do that,” Astrid piped up. Loki wasn’t surprised, she had been looking desperate for a position of power the whole time Korg had been speaking and any Asgardian could perform in this role, All-Speak being what it was.

The meeting lasted for a while after Korg finished speaking, and Loki found himself coming out of it with a light feeling he wasn’t accustomed to. Things were looking up, Erik wasn’t all that interested in sorcery but maybe he could be, he and Thor were getting along, the ship was starting to be run properly.

Maybe everything would be alright after all.

When he returned to his rooms he was disappointed to see that the door opened with no effort. Oh well, it sometimes took a little while for people to get a hang of it the first time. Loki was confident that over the next day or so -

“I can’t do it.” The boy was seated at the table now, stubborn set to his jaw as he glared at Loki’s entrance defiantly.

“Of course you can,” Loki scoffed, crossing his arms. “It simply takes time the first time, if you keep trying - “

“What use would it be?!” The boy threw his harms in the air, “I’m not a woman! I’m not going to be any good at this stuff.”

Loki narrowed his eyes, good mood evaporating like water on the surface of a star.

“Do I  _ look like a woman _ ?”

Erik was surprised by Loki’s words and for a moment he appeared uncertain, but then a curtain came down over his eyes and he was lost to Loki.

“It doesn’t matter - you’re special -”

“A  _ freak _ ,” Loki supplied. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it? A  _ weakling _ ? A traitor to my sex? A man  _ dirtying  _ myself with the dealings of women, do you listen for a jingle of keys as I walk, I wonder?”

“No - I -” Erik began, horrified. But Loki did not allow him to speak.

“Tell me,  _ boy _ , what precisely do you find so distasteful about women, that you see anything associated with them as beneath you?”

“I don’t I -”

“Get  _ out of my sight _ . I have had enough of your kind for a lifetime. Just leave, give up, I do not care. I will perform the spell  _ myself _ .”

“But you said that was really dangerous!”

“Well you’re not giving me much of a choice, are you?”

“Sir, I -”

“GET OUT!” And the boy left.

He stood there panting with his rage for a good while after, pushing back the clamour of his many regrets trying to come to the surface. He had just about gotten a hold of himself when Thor came bursting into their rooms.

“BROTHER!” He cried, jolly and Loki flinched, a sick feeling of dread curling in his stomach.

He said, “I am not in the mood, Thor.”

This, at least, gave Thor pause. Now he eyed Loki wearily and it  _ grated _ .

“What is the matter?”

“Nothing,” he spat, throwing himself on the settee. “I know you’re here to wax poetic about some stupid hunt you’re planning and I will have  _ none of it _ .”

“But you love hunts.”

“No, Thor!” He cried, “ _ You  _ love hunts! I just went along with you because I was desperate for your attention!”

Thor reared back, hurt. Loki did  _ not  _ feel guilty  _ in the least _ .

“Why did you even come here, Loki? If our entire childhood was a lie, what makes us brothers anymore? Not blood, clearly not bond. What do you want? Power? Or -” A look of horror passed over his face “- was it an accident? You did not even mean to come here in the first place?”

Loki said nothing, but he felt all the hope that had been growing in him tear away, leaving nothing but a ragged wound where his heart should be.

Thor went on, “The Tesseract - you said it took all of your magical reserves to use it - that’s how you escaped Ragnarok, wasn’t it? You used it to teleport here because it was all you could think of in the moment and now you’re - you’re  _ stuck  _ here. It’s why you need Erik’s help to freeze the food. You can perform a freezing charm because you’re a Jotun -” Loki flinched but Thor didn’t stop “- but you don’t even have enough magic to perform a - what did you call it -  _ basic  _ sealing spell.”

With a final, disgusted look, Thor spun on his heels and left. Loki wanted to scream and rage and cry and  _ kill  _ but in the end he was just too numb for anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank everyone who comments on this fic, I read every comment and I love them, the amount of enthusiasm for this fic is astounding. The comments I get are inspiring and sometimes funny and sometimes heartwarming and I honestly love everyone who's willing to talk with me about this fic of mine.
> 
> Next Thursday:  
> Thor and Loki resolve some problems & Loki tries to freeze the food storage alone.


	5. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor’s eye trailed back to the list, gut churning with bile at the impossibility of this task, of the weight of his failure, not even a week into his kingship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Thursday another chapter! Let's just ignore that it's so early that apart from Australia and bits of Asia, it's probably still Wednesday...
> 
> Thanks again to my amazing betas, astalitha & simplykayley for making this chapter readable and talking to me when I needed help. Also I'd like to thank firechildslytherin5 who has helped me plot out this story so much. So. Damn. Much.
> 
> Also before we get in: minor trigger warning for self-starvation, not the pov character, but it's talked about and dealt with.

“Again!”

Both girls groaned but Thor had no pity. When he was their age he had been forced to train drills like this for hours too. Tightening their grips on their broom handles the girls repeated the sequence Thor had shown them. Thor circled, correcting any errors and absolutely  _ did not think about Loki _ .

Okay that was a lie, watching these girls struggle to perform drills, something Thor could do in his sleep, was not exactly the most mentally stimulating activity so really, if he were being truthful Thor  _ only  _ thought about Loki.

He was  _ fine _ .

He was  _ not fine _ . He was a  _ mess _ . He wanted to punch something, preferably Loki. How had he been such a fool? His mind was drawn back to a time, when they were barely four hundred, when Loki begged him -  _ begged him  _ \- to take him on a hunt. They traveled into the wilds of Midgard and slew a bear. At the campfire that night Loki told him the story of the creation of all things, eyes dancing in the firelight, getting it deliberately, terribly wrong for the mortals listening in the shadows.

“No, widen your stance - no not you, Gyda, No-Name - yes, like that.”

All he wanted was his brother back. The man he could count on before anyone else, yes Loki would mock him for his failings but he’d always helped him out of a scrape. His childhood used to be such a golden time, happy memories always outweighed the sad. Now everything was shrouded in bitterness, his father was not a man of peace, protecting the weaker eight realms, but a conqueror holding a leash. His brother was not really his brother but a war prize the same as his mother. Had Loki ever loved him? Had he resented him their entire childhood and masterfully hidden it?

“Again!”

The girls groaned. This would be the the last time, Thor decided. It was only their first day.

And the day had gone so well at first. Thor felt that he and Loki had begun to reach an understanding - but that was likely just a trick, a ploy to give him free reign until such a time that he gathered enough power to leave.

Then good riddance to him. Thor would be  _ fine  _ without him. Just. Fine.

“That’s enough!” He announced and the girls sagged with relief. “Get back to Hilde.” he said, allowing a friendly grin to take his features. “I’ll see you, bright and early tomorrow!”

The girls scurried out of the room to the sound of Thor’s laughter. He was going to enjoy training them, he just hoped that when he finally did give them the option to leave they would stay and continue with him. Thor left after them, heading towards his rooms to rest before supper… and stopped.

Maybe not the best place to be at this point in time.

Anyway he had other matters to attend to of course! The girls would need appropriate clothes for training he should see if he could find any in the clothing stores. Course set, Thor set off toward the storage bay and  _ did not think about Loki _ .

Much.

There wasn’t really one ‘storage bay’ on the ship, rather there were five. Located on the lower decks there was a large room containing all sorts of odds and ends. Mostly it was party supplies: balloons, streamers, sparklers, contraception, alcohol. Great stuff for a lively - if slightly adult oriented - bash, but not that great for supplying the remnants of a once great civilization.

But one thing that had been included on this party ship was a hoard of clothing, of all types of radically different shapes and sizes. It was all colourful without exception, bright blocks of blues and reds and greens and oranges, clashing against each other, meaning that in their darkest days the Asgardians had become the most colourful they had ever been. For some reason, Thor found that somewhat appropriate.

Entering the storage bay that held the clothes, Thor was slightly startled to see a woman sitting on the ground by a pile that dwarfed her, sewing away at a blouse.

“Uh - Hello?”

The woman jumped - no not a woman, a  _ girl _ really, she couldn’t have been a day over five hundred. She had a mane of tangled blonde hair and wide, green eyes and still wore an Asgardian dress that had been patched neatly in places it had ripped.

“Oh - Your - Your Majesty - King Thor!” She cried, shooting to her feet, her work tumbling to the floor. 

_ No _ , Thor thought,  _ I am the Iron Man of Midgard _ . He said none of this.

Instead he said, “What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m -” she looked around frantically, as if searching for an escape route. “- well I thought I’d fix up some of the clothes that weren’t really - that weren’t really… aesir… shaped?” She cringed, as if expecting him to yell at her.

“That seems like a good idea,” he said instead because he wasn’t a  _ monster _ , “but have you considered that some people on the ship aren’t aesir shaped either?”

The girl, who had perked up at his compliment, nodded eagerly, “I went around and talked to the gladiators first - I’m going to make three shirts and two trousers for Taln once I’ve finished converting this lot and Almyria says she’s got all the clothes she needs already.”

Thor blinked, then a memory struck him and he knew who this was, he’d spoken to her while taking the census.

“You’re Ragnhild, Rolf’s daughter. A seamstress.”

“Yes, sir.” The girl blushed.

An idea struck him, “Do you think I could come find you tomorrow with a request? I’ve taken two girls on as apprentices and they will need appropriate clothes.”

Ragnhild lit up, “Of course, sir! Just bring them here, whenever you please after breakfast and I can measure them right up.”

“Excellent!” Thor said, clapping the girl on the shoulder. The girl blinked and grinned up at him and Thor decided to beat a hasty retreat before it became awkward.

He began heading back to his quarters and certainly didn’t worry about seeing Loki there…  _ damn it all _ .

-

Three days passed and Thor fell into a routine. In the mornings, before breakfast, he would wake from his bed on the settee and  _ did not think about Loki _ , he would wake the girls and they would go for their morning run around the ship, stopping at three laps. At breakfast he would look around for Vigi -  _ not Loki _ \- and not find him. Then, Thor would resign himself to eating lunch alone. He definitely did not pay attention to when Loki, looking bitter, would come into the hall, take his food and leave.

He didn’t have much else to do during the day, other than train the girls, so he would waste away his time with various tasks or spending time with the people he was coming to see as friends. The Hulk and the Valkyrie often agreed to spar with him to blow off steam,  _ steam that had nothing to do with Loki _ , he had told the Valkyrie when she’s asked what was going on between them. She’d raised an eyebrow and asked if Thor wanted to drink about it. Thor did not. Well, he did but he told himself he didn’t, and besides the Valkyrie was a truly depressing drinking companion.

Sometimes he would sit with Korg during meals and talk about the strange things that came across his mind. Korg was a strange fellow, but he was better than Loki.

The first day after Korg’s plan was implemented Thor saw people finally  _ moving _ . People had chosen tasks or were assigned jobs and they were finally acting with purpose again. There was laughter now, during mealtimes and singing too occasionally. After meals people began to gather in the great hall, dim the lights and tell stories of the past. Thor thought that maybe Loki would enjoy this time, he had always been so talented at stories, but then he remembered that he didn’t really know  _ what  _ Loki was like and he’d grow sad and leave the hall alone.

On the third day, Fenja approached Thor after lunch.

The short woman said nothing, seating herself opposite Thor. She had a pinched, worried look about her that was alien to her normally jovial face and Thor found himself frowning in turn.

“Fenja,” he said, “what’s the matter?”

She worried at her lip, as if debating with herself over what to do next, eventually she slid a tablet across the table to him. He caught it and saw that it was open to the food log that had become part of the rationing system; people were now asked to check their names during mealtimes in order to make sure everyone was getting the correct rations.

Looking more closely he saw that Fenja had highlighted people who had no checks next to their name. One name in particular,  _ Vigi Iarlsson _ came jumping out at him and Thor felt a the crawl of dread climb up his limbs and take hold of his heart. He met Fenja’s dark eyes and saw himself mirrored.

“These people are not eating.”

“No, Your Majesty, they are not.”

They sat there in silence for a very long moment, both unable to move under the weight of the choices that faced them. Thor’s eye trailed back to the list, gut churning with bile at the impossibility of this task, of the weight of his failure, not even a week into his kingship.

He allowed himself a single, deep sigh, before he stood.

“Follow me.”

They found Alfdis first and had a long discussion on their next move. Then Thor called the Valkyrie, Rolf, Turid and Hilde to the meeting room and the minutes it took for them to reach him felt like hours. They came one by one and eyed the bowls of thin soup that Fenja had brought with her to the room and laid on the table.

Once they were all gathered, Fenja told them what was happening. Too many times in these past few days had Thor been party to looks of horrified realisation coming from these people. Each time he’d wished it were the last, each time it was not. He longed for Loki at his right side as he always did and shoved the feeling deep into the back of his mind, now was not the time.

“It makes sense,” Turid said sadly, “we should have known that some people would feel…”

Like they didn’t deserve the food when the ones they lost had nothing, when the rationing was so tight and others may need the food more. Yes they should have known.  _ Thor  _ should have known. Hopefully it was not too late for anyone, hopefully he had not failed so badly yet.

“We will go to each of their assigned quarters with the food and first ask to be let in,” Thor said, “if they do not let us in we have the codes to their quarters here and will enter regardless. We must speak to them and try to get them to eat.”

“Slowly,” Alfdis cautioned, “if they have not eaten in days they may be ill if they eat too much too quickly.”

“What if they refuse to eat?” Hilde asked, voice thin with restrained pain, eyes shining in compassion.

And that was the problem wasn’t it? They could not force people to eat. 

“Sit with them,” Thor suggested, perhaps it was an order, “sit with them and talk to them and tell them that until they eat, neither will I.”

“You cannot do that, Your Majesty!” Said Rolf, alarmed, “what if they never eat? You’re too important to risk your life like this.”

Thor leveled his gaze on the carpenter, who met it unflinchingly.

“Then we’d best get everyone eating again,” Thor said.

They each got their task and their bowl and headed of to assigned rooms, Thor found himself heading to a room just around the corner, heart lodged soundly in his throat.

At the first knock there was no reply and Thor tried desperately to quash any fears that reared their head. He forced himself to count to one hundred before knocking again. Again, no answer and the fears bubbled up, he knocked a third time, more insistent and the door slid open.

Vigi Iarlsson was tall and had dark hair, much as Thor remembered, but he has no idea how he thought he’d looked like Loki. Where Loki was pale, Vigi was dark, with olive toned skin tanned and worn from years of long work in the sun, Vigi’s eyes were also dark, a dull brittle brown that could be warm, so, so easily. Where Loki was all thin sharp lines and angles, Vigi was broad and smooth.

Vigi looked weary, but even the weight of exhaustion and starvation could not stop brief surprise from flickering across his face.

“My King,” he said, voice warm and deep, “what are you doing here?” 

Thor forced a grin across his features.

“I’ve come to give you my thanks,” he said, offering up the bowl of soup, “and food. And hopefully I could speak with you while you eat.”

Vigi didn’t even glance at the food in Thor’s hand, “I already ate, I’m afraid, and I’m quite full.”

The grin slipped off Thor’s face. “No,” he said, “you have not. And if you had even been to the eating hall in the past three days you would know how I knew.”

The pair eyed each other wearily for a moment, neither moving. Finally Vigi’s eyes dropped to the bowl in Thor’s outstretched hand and sighed.

“I don’t want to,” he said, quietly.

Thor’s heart went to him. “I know,” he said, “sometimes nor do I. But we must.”

The bowl stayed between them for a moment more before Vigi took it.

“Do you still wish to talk, sire?” He asked, retreating back into the darkness of his rooms. Thor followed.

“I do,” he said entering the room and sliding the door shut behind him. The room was dimly lit, but neat, so neat it almost looked like no one lived there at all. Vigi made to sit down at his small table and Thor sat with him.

“Careful,” he cautioned, remembering Alfdis’ words, “the healer said you must eat slowly or else you may be sick.”

Vigi winced and would not meet his eyes, “You should not have done this for me, Your Majesty.”

A flash of anger took Thor, lightning quick, and suddenly he was his father. “Do not presume to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do, Vigi son of Iarl,” he growled. 

Vigi flinched, “Forgive me, sire,” he said and Thor sighed.

“No, I am sorry. I should not have done that. You saved my life the other day and I owe you a debt.”

Vigi shook his head. “I don’t think that counts, I don’t know what came over me, I didn’t even realise I was doing it until I had. I just suddenly  _ knew _ that that monster was just an upset kid and I  _ knew  _ that he needed kind words and what those words were.”

Thor frowned. “What do you mean, you just  _ knew _ ? Like magic?”

Vigi shrugged. “Maybe. Although I’ve never tried magic before, so I wouldn’t know. I was a farmer, Before.”

Thor frowned. He would need to speak with Loki about this, hopefully he’d be willing to help a little before he left. Actually, come to think of it, Loki already had been helping. Had it just been to fool Thor into believing he was staying, so that Thor left him unaccosted until his time to leave? Come to think of it, if that was his plan, why had he reacted so harshly that night when Thor wished to discuss the hunt? Surely it would have made more sense to just go along with the hunt to keep him happy?

Blinking out of it, Thor saw Vigi was watching him intently, and that the man hadn’t touched his food yet.

“You should eat.”

“What is troubling you, sire?”

Thor blinked. “Your refusal to eat,” he said, quite smoothly if he did say so himself. He gestured expectantly to the soup bowl.

Vigi smiled. “I will eat if you tell me what is really troubling you.”

Oh, come  _ on _ . “You were perfectly willing to eat a minute ago!”

Vigi didn’t waver. “I will eat if you tell me what’s wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong, Vigi, just eat, you’re trying to find an excuse not to.” Thor was getting desperate now.

Vigi’s gaze locked on his, unfaltering, “Your Majesty,” he said, as if speaking to a child, “tell me.”

And for some reason, Thor told him.

As if in a trance, Thor told Vigi of what he used to be like, brash and foolish, blind to the plights of others, he told him of Loki’s first betrayal that he wasn’t sure was a betrayal at all. He spoke of his foolish journey to Jotunheim and of the All-Father’s wrath, of his time on Midgard and of Loki’s subsequent betrayals.

He spoke of the agony he felt, watching his beloved brother disappear into the void, of how enraged he became when he reappeared later in some misguided attempt to claim the Earth for his rule. He spoke of Loki’s imprisonment and release, of his mother’s death and of the second time his death was faked.

He spoke of his second time mourning, of finally letting go and allowing himself to be happy once more. Of his dreams, of the sad resignation that settled upon him when Loki was alive again, uncaring for Thor. He spoke of Loki’s visit in the gladiator pit and the sum of money he must have won off of Thor’s failure, of Loki’s final attempted betrayal and of his return.

He spoke of his childhood and how it was all a lie, how his entire family was built on lies. And finally, voice hoarse and trembling, Thor told Vigi of his and Loki’s fight, days ago, when Thor realised that Loki had not returned after all.

When he was finished he sagged in his chair, and they were both silent. It was a relief, to get everything out, but  _ why had he done it _ ? Vigi had eaten, as per their agreement but Thor didn’t remember him doing it. In fact he didn’t even remember saying a word to Vigi. He knew that he  _ did _ but how? What words did he use? What had he said first? What had he spent the longest on? Which memory did he hesitate to relay?

He was struck with a fear then, of the man before him. There was magic at work here, old and powerful, beyond anything Thor was capable of dealing with. Argument or not he had to speak with Loki.

After an eternity of silence, Vigi shuddered, as if coming out of his own trance.

“Have you thought,” he said, “that maybe you’re wrong about Loki’s motivations?”

Thor shrugged. “He’s never denied anything.”

Vigi raised an unimpressed eyebrow, “So that means everything is true. Have you ever actually asked him about any of this? Or tried to see it from his point of view?”

Thor threw his hands up in the air, “He’d just try to trick me!”

“So everything you assume is true and anything that Loki says in his defense is a lie.” Vigi leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, “No wonder he doesn’t want to be around you. Family is a precious thing, sire, do not lose it if you don’t have to.”

And that - well that was a good point. Maybe Thor should try finding out what Loki’s point of view was, in fact he probably should have done this long before now.

“In my defense,” Thor said, getting up, “he does try to trick me quite often.”

“Sure. Whatever you say, Your Majesty. Go talk to your brother.”

“Going!” Thor reached the door and turned back, “Oh and I’ll come get you for dinner. You’re eating with me for the foreseeable future.” And he left.

-

Thor was going to do it. He was going to talk to Loki, they were going to sit down and speak with each other and get this mess sorted out once and for all.

But as Thor passed the dining hall he was a little side tracked. People crowded the entrance, all standing and craning their necks to get a look in, at what, Thor did not know. He’d find Loki  _ right  _ after he figured out why so many people were milling about just after lunch. Usually in the time between meals the dining hall was relatively empty, but at the moment people seemed to be gravitating toward it. Confused but not knowing how to ask someone what was going on without appearing un-kingly, Thor pushed through the crowd in the dining all to see –

Oh.

Loki was kneeling in front of a door, to the left of the kitchens, painting on it with that special ink of his. That explained the crowd. It was not often that the people of Asgard were allowed to see a sorcerer casting a spell.

It struck him then, that the boy, Erik was not with Loki. Had something happened? Had the boy been incapable of helping him? A trickle of fear struck Thor then, if Loki really was as magically depleted as Thor thought, this task would be dangerous.

Craning his neck, Thor looked for the boy, he finally spotted him at a far wall. Thor made his way through the crowd to his location.

“Hello, Erik,” he said, and pleased when the boy jumped. He glanced up at Thor nervously, guiltily. Thor was right, he had abandoned Loki after all. A sour taste coated the back of his tongue and Thor wanted to strangle this brat, wanted to strangle himself.

“I cannot help but notice,” he added with forced joviality, “that you are not over there with Loki,” he indicated to where Loki was now drawing golden symbols in the air.

The boy shrank away. “I’m not a woman so I couldn’t do it,” he defended though Thor could tell his heart was not in it.

Was this why Loki had been in such a sour mood the night of their argument? Because this brat was forsaking Loki’s order? Thor remembered how he used to behave about magic, how defensive Loki would become.

He’d been a fool.

With the boy, Thor watched Loki as he began to work the spell proper, a green glow taking over his body. Thor frowned, he’d seen his brother cast many spells, and in none did his body light up in such a way.

Worry curled in his chest, to be closer Thor began to make his way through the crowd, eyes glued on Loki. When he got to the front of the crowd, Erik gasped.

Thor looked down in surprise, he hadn’t realised the boy had followed him. The boy in question’s eyes were bugging out of his head in horror, gaze on Loki and Thor felt his stomach drop.

Thor grabbed the boy by his shoulders and crouched down to his level, “What is happening?” He demanded.

“I don’t know!” The boy glanced back to where Loki was sitting in a trance. The green light was starting to flicker causing the boy to flinch. “Except maybe something’s wrong?”

“I can see that – what’s wrong? Why?”

The boy only shook his head, Thor growled in frustration. Grabbing the boy’s chin he forced his eyes to meet Thor’s own glower.

“If by some inaction of yours, my brother is harmed it will be on your head.” He snarled.

Eyes frantic with panic he whimpered, “I don’t know - I don’t know! I – I wasn’t really paying attention when my aunt was teaching me this stuff – maybe I’m completely wrong – I don’t know!”

“What,” Thor said carefully, resisting the urge to punch something,“do you  _ think _ it is?”

“I well - I think my aunt once said -” he shot another, frantic look to Loki “- I think she said that if you start overexerting your power, your magic will try to warn you by - well by lighting up.”

Well okay, Thor knew Loki would be overexerting himself in this spell, and he knew why. Loki knew what he was doing, he’d be fine, absolutely fine. Why wasn’t the spell done by now? The next few minutes were torturous, all Thor could do was watch Loki kneel in silence, somehow simultaneously expecting the spell to be complete at any moment and expecting the wait to go on forever.

After almost half an hour of inactivity, most of the observers had milled out of the room, leaving only a handful playing a card came at one of the tables, and Thor and Erik, watching Loki intently for any movement. It was Erik who saw it first, saw something that he was clearly expecting - and dreading.

The boy gasped and took a step back and a moment later Thor saw it too: the glow surrounding Loki was beginning to flicker. At first Thor thought that maybe it meant the spell was over, but Loki showed no signs of moving, no signs of knowing what was happening around him at all.

Thor looked to the boy in askance and this time he didn’t need any prompting.

“I think - I - he’s not enough - he’s - he’s being used up he’s -” Erik cut himself off when the light flickered off for too long. Thor’s blood turned to ice.

“Do something!” Thor demanded.

“I - I can’t - I don’t know how - I’m a man -”

“Then act like one and  _ do what must be done! _ ” Thor snapped.

 

The people playing cards jumped and stared but Thor didn’t care. Nothing mattered more than this - he had to think of something - maybe if he just grabbed Loki and pulled him away - maybe if-

The boy shot past him, diving at Loki’s unmoving form into the glow of magic and slapped his hands over Loki’s on the door. For too long nothing happened and Thor prepared to throw himself into the path of the spell when - all at once the glow disappeared

Loki crumpled, a puppet whose strings were cut and Thor was running for him before it had even registered, sliding the last of the way on his knees because he could not reach him  _ fast enough _ . Thor cradled his face and he was too cold and too pale and he was not awake but he was  _ breathing _ . He was  _ breathing _ . He was  _ breathing _ .

“Get the healer!” He barked, behind him to where the people had been playing their game.

“Mama’s gone to get someone,” said a young boy, eyes wide.

Thor nodded in thanks and turned back to Erik. The blond boy had fallen to his knees and was watching him and Loki with a dazed expression.

“Are you okay?”

Erik only nodded, unblinking. Thor was struck with a fresh wave of guilt for how he’d treated him. It wasn’t long ago that Thor harboured similar thoughts against magic. As if a woman’s art was something terrible to take up.

“You did well today,” he said gently, “your parents would be proud.”

This brought the boy back to there and then, his gaze focused on Thor, sad.

“Father wouldn’t.”

Thor could say nothing to that. They sat in silence, watching the prone form of the one who tied them together. Thor could not tell you how much time had passed before he was pushed aside by wrinkled hands.

Alfdis’ healing magic passed over Loki’s body with the familiar golden glow. Her weathered eyes intent, she frowned, then smiled and clicked her fingers and Loki was awake.

“He’ll be fine,” she said with a wry smile, helping Loki sit up, “he was just a little tired.”

Loki glanced around, frowning, but said nothing, his eyes met Thor’s for a moment, two, then flitted away.

“I’ll help him back to our rooms,” Thor offered, he felt the adrenaline rush coming down and didn’t want to be around his people when he began shaking. He didn’t really want to be around Loki either, and the feeling was likely mutual, but they had to talk.

Loki didn’t say anything as they got to their feet, nor did he speak in the corridors leading to their rooms. Once they were inside, Loki began toward the bedroom like he had in the last few days. Thor was having none of that, reaching out he grabbed his brother’s arm. He stopped but still didn’t look at him, still said nothing.

“Loki,” Thor said with a heavy finality, “we must speak.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha sorry?
> 
> OK so I know I said last week that Thor & Loki were going to sort shit out but, uh, hahaha, I wrote the last line of the chapter and was like "OMG that is the perfect place to stop it!" so I did, despite the fact that I had already written the reunion scene. To make up for, uh, leaving you with that cliffhanger I'm gonna post the first couple paragraphs of the next chapter on tumblr in the next few days so keep an eye out for that if you want a sneak peak.
> 
> Quick word of warning: I've rated my fic as T now, so it won't be treated as explicit but I grew up in a house that didn't believe in censorship so I'm not actually sure what's appropriate for teenagers or not. I believe teens (including 12 & 13 years olds) can handle a myriad of complex and somewhat adult situations, like what's happening with Vigi this chapter. If you guys believe the rating should go up to M, let me know, if enough people say this I'll raise the rating.
> 
> As always a HUGE thank you to all my commenters! I've been slack answering the last couple days but I read them all and they mean SO MUCH to me :)
> 
> Next Thursday: Thor and Loki ACTUALLY sort out some shit, Erik becomes an apprentice proper and Vigi hangs out with Thor.


	6. In Which Things Are Looking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thorki FEELS in this one omg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> G'day! Another Thursday another chapter XD
> 
> Again thanks to my awesome betas, simplykayley and astalitha. Also to firechildslytherin5 for talking with me about plot XD
> 
> I imagine this to be Thor and Loki's rooms: https://at-home-other.ambient-mixer.com/thor-and-loki-s-chambers

Loki said nothing.

Thor swallowed, “Loki-”

“What is there to say, Thor?” He jerked in Thor’s grip but Thor had always been the stronger of the two and he would not let go.

“I think there is much to say - too much. It has been years since we have truly spoken.”

“It has been years since you listened.” Loki snarled, finally turning to face him, eyes wild.

“Yes,” Thor admitted, “you’re right. I’m sorry.” Thor took a deep, steadying breath and let go of him. Loki didn’t move, so that was something. “I’m sorry for that and I’m - I’m sorry about the other day. I shouldn’t have blown up at you because you didn’t want to go hunting. I just -” he sat down on the settee, head in his hands- was any of it real?”

Loki didn’t move, didn’t say anything for a long moment and Thor thought maybe he wouldn’t. But then he sighed, and his rigid posture relaxed and he came to sit next to Thor.

“Of course it was,” Loki said, “even I cannot build a lie out of our entire childhood. But - there were things that I lied about.”

“I just miss my brother.”

“I’m not your brother, Thor,” Loki said, perhaps even gently, “too much has happened, I cannot be your brother anymore.”

“Then why are you here?” Thor demanded, he didn’t look at Loki. This man that he shared so much of his life with and still didn't know.

Loki hesitated, “Thor look at me.”

It was hard to bring his gaze to Loki’s, but he managed it. Thor had rarely seen him so solemn, so serious.

“I had a lot of time to think when I was writhing on the floor in agony.” He shot a pointed look to Thor who winced, he had forgotten about that. “I should have been plotting your slow and painful death. You were clearly intent on inflicting one on me. But,” His eyes became distant at the memory. “All I could think about was what you said. Of that  _ stupid  _ look of disappointment on your face as you left me to die. It made me realise that I didn’t want to hate you anymore. That maybe - with Odin dead and you so different – that maybe I  _ didn’t  _ hate you anymore. That I  still –” he took a fortifying breath “- that I still loved you.”

Oh, it was bittersweet to hear Loki say that to him now. How long had he wished to hear those words again? But accompanied with  _ I’m not your brother _ , that he had hated for so long.

“But you are not my brother,” Thor stated to be quite sure.

Loki shook his head. “Odin was my father but all he said to me were lies. Frigga was my mother and I will always love her as such but she kept quiet and was party to Odin’s lies. You were my brother and in some ways you always will be. I was the one who lied to you. I changed myself to gain your favour and I will not do that any longer, I can not.”

It hurt but it rang true. Wasn’t that what he wanted the most from Loki? The truth?

“I would not ask that of you anymore.”

“And that,” Loki said with a small, sad smile. “is why I still love you.”

They sat there in each other’s presence for a while, quiet. Two men linked by a million lies, figuring out who they were to each other once all the lies were stripped away. They could have been nothing, without it all, enemies or worse, strangers. And yet here they were, still loving each other despite everything.

“If we are not brothers,” Thor said eventually, “what are we?”

“Family.” Loki said, fire in his eyes as he looked at Thor. “Whatever we were, whatever we are, whatever we will become, we will always,  _ always _ be family.”

Thor nodded slowly, hope sparking in his chest. “Family, then.”

The new title settled over them and Thor felt them both sag somewhat in relief. He still wasn’t sure this was real. It would likely take a long, long time before he allowed himself to trust Loki again. However, maybe that day would come.

“If this is to work,” Thor announced, “we’re going to have to lay out some rules.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. “What kind of rules?”

“I understand expecting you to be completely honest with me is ridiculous but,” Thor licked his lips nervously, hoping he was going about this the right way. “if you want me to listen to you - to believe what you say - I need you to tell me the truth.” Seeing Loki’s raised eyebrow he hastily added, “At least about the important things.”

“And I suppose  _ you  _ are the one to choose what’s important.”

Thor shrugged. “If you think I will think it’s important than avoid telling me anything about it.”

Loki let out a dry chuckle. “You’d really accept that?”

“It’s a compromise. If you want me to believe what you tell me you need to swear that most of the time you’ll tell the truth. Simple.”

Loki seemed to think about this, Thor watched him with bated breath. Eventually he nodded.

“If I speak to you on matters of import I will tell you the truth as best I know it. I swear it.”

Thor let out a sigh of relief. Loki smiled at him, sharp and amused, somewhat at his expense. Thor was probably giving him too much in allowing him lies of omission and they both knew it but right now he couldn’t care less. Things were looking up.

“While we’re doing this whole honesty thing -” Loki waved his hand dismissively and it was so  _ Lokian  _ that Thor had to stifle a laugh “- I wasn’t actually in any danger when casting the spell earlier.”

_ What. _

“What?”

Loki’s laugh was nervous now - and for good reason because Thor was going to  _ kill him _ .

“Hey - hey now Thor?” He held his hands up placatingly, leaning back on the settee, “What matters is that I’m telling you  _ now _ , right? So you - so you don’t have to worry about any long term - Thor stop  _ looking at me like that _ .”

“Like. What.” Thor gritted out through his anger. “Like I’m seriously considering throwing you out the nearest airlock?”

Loki gave out another nervous chuckle. Thor  _ did not  _ find it funny. “That’s - heh - that’s quite amusing, Thor, but maybe consider how  _ great  _ it is that we’re no longer trying to kill each other?”

“I’m too busy thinking about you faking grave injury.  _ Again _ .”

“This time it wasn’t for you? And I’m telling you of my own free will? That has to count for something.”

Thor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why?”

“I was trying to spur Erik into channeling magic. And it worked.”

Thor dropped his hand and blinked. “ _ Why? _ From what I’ve seen of the boy he wants nothing to do with magic, why not just let him be?”

“I think he has a talent for it - or could - and I do not wish to see that talent wasted. He’s just a boy, he’ll get over his biases soon enough.”

Thor shook his head in amazement, not quite understanding why  _ Loki _ of all people would bother.

“Next time you decide to fake injury, could you perhaps warn me first?” He beseeched.

Loki only grinned, satisfied with Thor’s forgiveness. After a moment Thor grinned back. It was so sweet to have him here once more, open and happy, right next to Thor where he belonged. They spoke for a while after, beside each other on the couch. Loki told Thor of how the boy had told him that he knew energy transferal and how it wasn’t difficult to make your magic appear in a way that mimicked exhaustion if you concentrated.

“You were right that I am diminished from using the Tesseract to escape Asgard but by Odin’s eye I’m not  _ that  _ diminished.” Loki scoffed, “If I’d had to I would have been able to cast the spell, it would have merely set back my full recovery by a few weeks.”

Thor in turn told him of his actions in the past few days, and of the people who had been starving themselves. Upon telling Loki of Vigi and his strange powers, Loki frowned.

“He forced you to tell him of our past?”

Thor thought back to the strange dreamlike state he had talked to Vigi in and frowned himself.

“I’m not sure. To be honest.” He said, “‘forced’ wouldn’t be the word I’d use and from what Vigi says he may not be aware that he’s doing it.”

Loki snorted in disbelief, “Magic like that - magic that winds its way into people’s minds - is beyond anyone but the most cunning and powerful sorcerers. There is no way that he did it unconsciously.”

Thor rolled his eye, “Loki not everyone is a snake in the shadows. If he was a sorcerer why would he tell me that he can magically manipulate people?” This seemed to stump Loki, and Thor felt a thrill at coming up with something that Loki hadn’t.

“Even so,” Loki said eventually, “I do not like it. We should keep an eye on him - but keep our distance. He already knows more about us than anyone on this ship, we do not want to give him more access to either of us.”

Thor flushed suddenly, Loki caught sight of it - because  _ of course he did _ \- and narrowed his eyes. “Thor,” he said with obviously strained annoyance, “what have you done?”

“Well I  _ may have  _ said I’d eat meals with him for the foreseeable future.”

Loki slowly shut his eyes. “ _ Cancel _ .” he hissed.

_ Oh he wanted to _ . The idea of eating with someone who’d convinced him to confess all of his private problems with just a few choice words was  _ not at all  _ appealing, but…

“Thor,” Loki said, eyes still shut. “Stop making that face and just  _ cancel _ .”

“I’m not making a face,” he denied and it rung false even to him. “And I can’t cancel.”

“Thor -”

“ _ No _ , Loki, I  _ cannot  _ cancel. If he is not a secret sorcerer out to kill me than he is  _ hurting _ and I might help him. He saved me from the Hulk. I owe him.”

“Yes,” Loki blinked his eyes open. “but if he is a -” he waved his hand in the air. “- secret sorcerer out to kill you and you sit with him three times a day for the foreseeable future then he will likely succeed in the aforementioned goal. And by the  _ norns _ , Thor stop  _ with that look _ . I know that stubborn set of your jaw, Thor, for  _ once  _ would you put yourself before the greater good?”

Thor did not change the set of his jaw. After a moment of Loki searching his face, he sighed.

“Fine,” he conceded, “get yourself killed. It’ll be the easiest rise to Kinghood I’ve ever had.”

Thor barked out a laugh. “That it would be.” he agreed.

For the rest of the afternoon the pair pulled up a holographic board game and attempted to decipher the rules. Thor wasn’t sure of what was happening in the game half the time but he was certain that Loki cheated at least twice. It was in the glimmer of a secret-kept in the depths of his green eyes. Thor didn’t mind now anymore than he had minded when they were children; wiling away a stormy afternoon shortly after he had became a god.

Something warm and joyous took his heart in those hours, laughing with Loki in their shared quarters of a stolen spaceship. Some piece of his heart that he had lost long ago slotted itself back into place. And Thor thought that even with his mother gone and his father’s legacy one of death, with his friends dead and a broken kingdom looking to him for leadership, he could be happy with Loki by his side.

That evening the girls didn’t have any training so he and stayed until it was time for dinner. To Thor’s pleasant surprise, Loki decided to join him when he went to fetch Vigi. Thor worried all the way there, but the uncertain surprise he saw in Vigi’s eyes when he opened the door told him that he had made the right decision.

Dinner was pleasant, Vigi was withdrawn but Thor and Loki worked together to make him feel welcome. It shocked Thor, sometimes, how easily Loki convinced people that he liked them when the opposite was true. Watching Loki interact with Vigi as if he wished to be friends made a kernel of doubt sit heavy in his gut.

After dinner, Loki finally joined them in the great hall of the ship for the nightly entertainment. They shared an ale, perched together on the throne and listened to the music around them. Eyes alight, Loki joined in the song, his voice rising high and hushing all others. He sang the tale of the Serpent-Stealer who magicked the great Jormungandr away from the waters of Midgard for three days and nights, before she was caught under its weight and had to send it back or be crushed.

“I should ask the blacksmiths if we can build a firepit.” Thor mused aloud, after Loki’s song, handing Loki their fifth mug of ale. Loki hummed, surveying the dancing crowd with those shrewd eyes of his.

“This atmosphere certainly feels lacking of a fire.” He agreed, taking his swig and passing the mug back.

Thor turned to watch the crowd himself and caught sight of Astrid approaching them. She was beautiful. Her golden hair was tied away from her face but cascaded down her bare shoulders in loosely curled waves, she wore a light, airy dress that highlighted all the loveliest parts of her for those of the mind to look. The light buzz of alien ale running through his system gave Thor the mind.

She smiled at them and it really did light up her pretty face. “Your Majesty, would you like to dance?” She asked and Thor thought maybe he would.

“Actually,” Loki interrupted from his perch, his slim fingers slipping into Thor’s.“Thor and I were just about to go for a dance ourselves.”

Thor’s world then narrowed down to the hand in his and Loki’s mischievous green eyes as he was pulled into the dancing crowd. It was wonderful, dancing with Loki, singing along to songs familiar, twirling each other around the makeshift dancefloor. The happy energy swelled through the room, carrying Thor along more than willingly. He never let go of Loki’s hand. Loki never let go of his, and if this was all a lie than his world was so much sweeter for it.

After, they stumbled half-drunk back to their rooms, giggling at nonsense like children. Thor made for the couch like usual, but Loki laughed and pulled him into the bedroom. Thor was gladly led.

They fell onto the bed a tangle of loose limbs and laughter and Thor pulled him close, tucking Loki’s head under his chin. He grinned as Loki’s nose buried into the hollow of his throat. All was not right with the universe, but it would be.

-

Conveniently, Loki’s kicks seem to consistently wake him up at the right time to collect the girls for their morning run, and that morning was no different. Feeling better than he had in days, despite his rude awakening. Thor whistled happily to himself in the shower and found his gaze lingering on Loki’s sleeping form as he got dressed, grinning for no real reason.

Gyda and No-Name were used to the routine by now. They were waiting for Thor outside the door to the orphanage, blearily rubbing sleep out of their eyes. Thor was pleased to see them both dressed in their new clothes that Ragnhild had given them yesterday. They both had dark blue leggings and a singlet shirt for running. No-Name wore red, and Gyda green.

They were reaching the point where they usually stopped for breakfast. Just outside the dining hall, Thor saw Astrid waiting by the entrance. He winced at his behaviour the night before, it was unbecoming of a king to leave without acknowledgment. He’d been so caught up in Loki’s… everything, that he’d completely forgotten about her. He slowed to apologise when the girls short past him.

“Hurry… up… slowpoke!” No-Name gasped over her shoulder before the girls turned a corner. Thor laughed.

“I’ll speak to you later, Astrid.” Thor said. Grinning he jogged after his girls.

They made another lap of the ship, but only barely by the end the girls were just about ready to collapse. Astrid found them sitting in the corridor outside the eating hall, Thor laughing as the girls tried to convince him to carry them in.

“Hello,” she said, smiling. “what are you up to?”

Thor grinned, “Ah, sorry Astrid, I’ve been training the girls and they wished to go further this morning.”

Astrid blinked. “Training them to be warriors?”

The girls suddenly stopped giggling. Confused Thor turned back to look at them. They looked so nervous out of nowhere that Thor was sure he was missing something.

“Only for a little while. It’s punishment for teasing the Hulk.” No-Name said. She sounded defensive, though Thor for the life of him didn’t understand why but the way Astrid inclined her head told Thor that she understood.

To him, Astrid said, “It is very wise, your Majesty, to teach these girls a lesson in humility.” She smiled, and for a moment Thor didn’t trust it. But the feeling was gone in a flash. Astrid was likely upset at the memories of the Hulk incident. As if sensing dismissal, the girls climbed to their feet and hurried away into the breakfast hall, displaying that they were not as tired as they claimed to be.

“Shall we go to breakfast?” Astrid asked, gesturing after the girls

Thor nodded. “I must go collect Vigi, join me?”

Astrid frowned slightly. “Vigi?”

“The man who saved us from the Hulk, I have agreed to eat with him at every meal for a while.” At this Astrid raised her eyebrows in question. Thor explained the some of what was happening with Vigi as they walked. As he had been, Astrid was horrified but seemed to understand why people did it.

“I should have thought of it.” she said, “I was the same my first day back. If father hadn’t -” she cut herself off, too upset to speak. Thor felt for her. They had all lost so much, it bordered on too much to bear.

  
Thor’s second meal with Vigi was no more exciting than the last. Vigi and Astrid were quiet and Thor didn’t bother attempting to lighten the mood. He did not see Loki or the Valkyrie, which was a slight disappointment, but Koro came to join them halfway through the meal and filled the silence with his cheerful, if inane prattle.   
After breakfast, Thor pulled Vigi aside. “I’d like you to start working on the ship.”

  
Vigi frowned. “There’s not much work for a farmer on board a spaceship.”

“No, there is not.” Thor agreed, “There is, however, a sore need for pilots. We only have two at the moment and that is nowhere near enough. Heimdall has been asking around but few are willing to put the effort into the skill.”

“And I am one of them.” Vigi looked away from Thor, to the wall behind his shoulder. “My family have been farmers since the dawn of our people.”

Thor’s heart went out to him, but they needed pilots and Vigi desperately needed a distraction. Plus it had the added benefit of keeping the man busy right under the nose of the most observant man in the universe.

“This is not a request.” Thor said, looking the dark haired man in the eyes and drawing upon all the authority his voice could give him. Vigi’s eyes widened as if only now had he realised that he was in the presence of the king of Asgard. For the first time in who knows how long ,Vigi showed some emotion other than distant sadness. Thor felt a wave of disgust at having caused it.

“Come,” Thor said, clapping the man on the shoulder. “let us go to the bridge and I will introduce you to the pilots.”

Vigi was silent all the way to the bridge. Vigi was usually silent but this time Thor couldn’t help but feel it piercing into him. Frustrated anger came off Vigi in waves and all Thor wanted to do was apologise for trying to force him into this. Only the idea that this was Vigi’s strange magic at work kept him from speaking.

He was relieved when, upon entering the Bridge, that the feeling subsided. Phora sat at the table, watching the progression of a holographic dot through a star map. Thor supposed that was the ship. She looked up when he entered and smiled politely.

“Captain,” she said, as the gladiators were wont to do, “I’ve been meaning to speak with you.”

Thor raised his eyebrow, “Certainly, but first let me introduce you to the new pilot-in-training, Vigi Iarlsson. Vigi, this is one of our pilots, Phora of Kree.”

Phora’s polite smiled morphed into a delighted grin. “Oh,  _ finally _ . I cannot tell you how much we need more pilots. I am very bloody pleased to make your acquaintance. I don’t suppose you have a dozen more potential pilots hiding out behind you?” She addressed the last part to Thor.

Thor chuckled, “I’m afraid not, Phora, you’ll have to make do with Vigi here.” Thor thumped Vigi on the back, causing him to step forward to keep his balance. “Do try not to overwork him, will you?”

“I've now got three people doing the job of ten, I’m not sure overworking quite covers it. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to ask you about the hunt, I was wondering if I could join you.”

And that was a thought, Thor hadn’t given much thought to who would join him on the hunt after Loki had refused. He had announced the hunt the other day and as far as he could gather most people were planning on going, if only to get off the ship.

Thor agreed that she could join him and left deep in thought. An idea struck him when he was almost returned to his rooms and he turning him about. He found Gyda and No-Name sharing a tablet in one of the nicer communal lounges, almost alone.

“Girls,” he greeted amiably. Both heads popped up in surprise.

“Thor!” No-Name exclaimed, dropping the tablet on the settee, “We don’t have training for another few hours.”

Thor held his hands up, placating, “Don’t worry, I’m just here to ask if you want to come with me on the hunt.”

No-Names eyes lit up, “That would be gre-“

She was cut off when Gyda elbowed her, “We can’t,” the usually quiet girl said, giving No-Name a pointed look. The girl instantly deflated.

“Oh yeah,” she said, “sorry, I forgot.”

Thor had had enough, “Okay,  _ what  _ is going on?” He demanded

The girls looked at each other then hung their heads.

“I’m sorry,” Gyda said, and she sounded close to tears and that was  _ not okay _ . “We were told about all of your punishment - I know we weren’t supposed to know but-“

“What do you mean,  _ all  _ of your punishment?” Thor demanded.

“That you - that you're not-“

“That you’re not really training us,” No-Name cut in, “That this is just a punishment and you’re testing us to make sure the message has gone through.”

And okay,  _ wow.  _ Thor found himself blinking in the face of the sheer  _ stupidity  _ of that statement. In what universe did  _ any  _ of that make sense?

“What does that even  _ mean _ ?” He asked, incredulous.

No-Name was going red with anger and Gyda had definitely started tearing up and Thor just wanted to understand  _ why _ .

“We  _ know _ , okay? Stop pretending,” No spat. “We know you’re only training us to show us that we shouldn’t try to fight like boys. We  _ know _ . Gyda wants to go along with it  but  _ I don’t care.  _ I’m going to work hard and I’m going to  _ show you  _ that I can be a warrior too.” She finished her speech with a heaving chest, a red face and tears in her own eyes.

Thor had never been so confused. “Where in all the realms did you get that idea?” He demanded.

No blinked in surprise and it was Gyda’s turn to speak. “We - we heard it from your real apprentices. The ones you’ll train when we can run your stupid thirty laps.”

Thor pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed out a great breath. By the  _ norns _ , what had possessed him to take of  _ children _ ?

“Let me get this straight. You think I’m training you so that I can ‘show you that girls can’t fight’, and you believe this because a bunch of boys told you.”

Gyda flushed, “It makes no  _ sense  _ that you’d want to train us! Everyone  _ knows  _ that girls are weaker than boys, it’s just how it works!”

Thor sighed, he had no idea what to do, what he could say to make things better, but he had to try. He sat down on the couch beside the two girls and tried desperately to find the right words.

“That’s not true, you know?” He said, somewhat awkwardly, “None of it. I have no idea who these boys are, for one. I definitely plan to train you for as long as you wish to be trained -”

“Why?” No-Name demanded, “You only met us a couple days ago and you immediately decided that we’re stupid and instead of punishing us, you expect us to believe that  _ you _ , King Thor, one of the greatest warriors Asgard has  _ ever  _ seen, decided to  _ train us _ .”

And okay when she put it like that it really didn’t make much sense. “I don’t know why I decided to train you,” Thor admitted, “I just thought that maybe you needed something to keep you busy and figured that you should at least be able to fight any fights you pick. We don’t know each other very well, so I really don’t know whether you’ll want to continue or not, whether you’ll make it or not. But I  _ do  _ know that there is no one else on this ship that I’d rather train than you two and that you gender does not change that.”

They were quiet for a moment, and then in a small voice Gyda said, “I think I would like to go hunting with you, after all.”

The girls smiled at him then, tentatively and Thor was relieved that he had done  _ something _ right. Maybe. Norns, why  _ did  _ he decide to take on apprentices? This was going to be  _ so hard _ .

He spent some time with them after their talk. He told them what would be expected of them the day of the hunt, that they were mostly there to watch. He hadn’t trained either of them enough to reallytake parte in a big game hunt. The girls then tried to teach him how to play that strange holographic board game that everyone on the ship had taken a shining to but he enjoyed exasperating them too much to actually attempt to learn.

He found himself really enjoying spending so much time with the girls. They were very, very different and Thor wondered how they came to be so close. From what they’d told him they hadn’t met until after Hella attacked. Gyda, she had told him, had been the daughter of a merchant and had joined her mother on off world trips on a few occasions. This surprised Thor greatly: there weren’t many merchants on Asgard that traded with worlds outside the nine realms. Thor wondered if Gyda’s mother had been an illegal trader but knew better than to ask. It didn’t matter much now anyway.

No-Name was ever the mystery to both himself and Gyda. Thor asked her what her true name was and who her parents had been but she never answered, only gotten angry at him for bringing it up. It worried Thor that this girl who was so loud and brash was hurt so badly that she had renounced her name and family. Thor hoped desperately that she was just being dramatic but feared the worst.

His day was not a particularly busy one, he spent most of the morning with the girls and parted ways with them at lunch, where he sat with Astrid, Vigi and Korg. Astrid and Vigi seemed to enjoy surprising each other with odd facts about their very different daily lives. When Vigi told her how quickly he could harvest a single wheat field Astrid mock fainted, causing a startled laugh to burst forth from Vigi. Thor laughed at them both and his heart felt lighter for the smile on their faces.

Korg of course noticed Thor’s lifted mood and asked if he had made up with his ‘brother’. The use of air quotes and a tawdy wink made it very clear he still didn’t believe the title and it was Thor’s turn to be laughed at. It felt good, this comradery, it felt like success.

Loki’s absence from lunch worried Thor a little, so he went in search of him and was subsequently sent to collect sandwiches for both Loki and Erik when he found them bent over the table in their chambers. He went gladly to Fenja, bounce in his step, high off a hopeful future.

Over the past few days, the Valkyrie and Korg had been collecting everyone on the ship who had any experience in fighting and assessing their abilities. So far, Valkyrie had told him, they were not shaping up well.

“None of them can even  _ touch  _ me in a fight,” she’d lamented.

“Have you considered,” Thor had said reasonably, “that you’re an elite, specially trained warrior and they’re -” he waved his hand trying to find the right words “- y’know, not.”

She’d glared at him like he was an idiot and snatched his bottle away and that was the last time Thor was ever agreeing to have a drink with a Valkyrie.

In any case, Valkyrie had made him come give a demonstration of what real warriors could do in the training room she and Thor had set up. They sparred two out of three and Thor managed a win by the skin of his teeth. It was exhilarating, fighting someone of the Valkyrie’s calibre without the fear of death and Thor was glad for the practice.  He had been training with the girls but at an apprentice level and needed the chance to work up a sweat. Oh how he longed to seek out the Warriors Three or Sif, it felt so strange to train without his companions of so long. He ached for their absence.

He’d left shortly after the spar though, not wanting to be dragged into training the recruits, he did  _ not  _ need that on top of training the girls. Instead he headed to the engine room to finally meet the blacksmith who had been keeping the ship running.

Sigurd was younger than he’d expected, if he had been a blacksmith Before, then he would have been barely past apprenticeship. He looked to be around five hundred, at the very beginning of adulthood and couldn’t keep the awe completely out of his eyes when he looked at Thor. He tried though, and Thor liked the boy. He seemed practical and clever and it had taken him almost no time to wrap his head around the alien engine system. He’d also spent all morning working on adding firepits to the great hall on Loki’s request.

“I had nothing else to do, really,” he said when Thor praised him, scratching his head bashfully, “and it wasn’t hard, the air filtering system on the ship is good enough, though not the best. Give me some proper tools and half a decade or so and I could upgrade it to a better standard but,” he frowned, “I’ve no idea of how to get the proper supplies.”

“Don’t worry,” Thor said, clapping him on the shoulder, “we won’t even need it for half a decade, with any luck. We can scrap it for anything you need when we reach Midgard.”

This did not seem to please Sigurd as much as he’d hoped, but it was the best he could do. Thor left with a list of supplies that they might need and handed it off to Rolf in one of the storage bays.

That evening they turned the lights off in the great hall and set the two long fire pits alight. People sat around the pits and listened as Loki told the Great Stories, tales never to be formed on paper. Stories passed down through generations of storytellers, intent on telling the comings and goings of the universe. Great battles and terrible betrayals played out in the fire that night, as it danced to the words of the Fire-God.

Afterwards, Loki and Thor sat quietly in their chambers, reading and sharing a bottle of wine that Loki particularly enjoyed. Not much of a reader and tired from the activity of the day, Thor retired first.

With a Plan.

Thor had had enough of Loki kicking him out of bed whenever they shared one, so Thor was going to give him a taste of his own medicine. Tonight he kicked back.

Okay so it wasn’t the cleverest plan of all time, but he didn’t claim to be  _ Loki _ . Come to think of it perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to kick Loki out of bed, he might get revenge in some vaguely horrifying form that didn’t link back to him in any way.

But Thor had made up his mind anyway. He was going to do this and he was going to  _ enjoy  _ it. What was the worst that could happen?

He didn’t know what time it was when Loki kicked him out of bed, only that it was too early to go get the girls which was  _ perfect _ . Sliding back beside the sleeping god of mischief, Thor braced himself and kicked.

Loki went flying off the bed with a yelp and was on his feet with knives in his hands before he fully registered the situation. When he saw Thor, laughing on the bed he scowled.

“What in the realms was  _ that  _ for?” He demanded, slipping away his blades.

Thor grinned. “Payback,” he explained, “you’ve done it enough times to me.”

“When have I-” realisation dawned on his face, “I’ve been kicking you out of bed.”

“Yes.”

“ _ That’s  _ why you’re never here in the mornings!”

Thor raised his eyebrow, “What, did you think I’d suddenly become a morning person?”

“I don’t know I -” he caught himself, clearing his throat “- I didn’t think about it actually.”

Thor chuckled as Loki climbed back into bed, sitting up against the headboard beside Thor. He didn’t look at Thor, instead watched the stars flitting past the window. An embarrassed flush stained his pale cheeks but Thor didn’t comment on it.

They stayed like that for a while, watching the stars. Eventually Loki relaxed enough to drowsily slump into Thor’s side.

“Are you excited for the hunt?” Loki asked, voice heavy.

“I am,” he said, “I’m taking the girls and Phora, the pilot. It will be good to get outside.”

“We’ve only been on the ship a week, we will have to get used to being on the ship for much longer.” Loki cautioned, letting his head fall to rest on Thor’s shoulder, still looking out the window.

Thor hummed in acknowledgement. Loki was right, of course, a week was nothing to the long stretches of empty space ahead of them. They were only a week in but soon people would be feeling the overcrowded conditions.

To distract himself, he asked, “Are you and Erik doing anything on the planet?”

“I will likely lead the gathering of supplies other than meat. I’ve been reading up on the planet in the past few days and there are many edible plants and ingredients on the northern continent that I’m interested in. Erik has said that he is planning on going hunting with his brother.”

They fell into silence once more, Loki’s weight growing heavier on him as time went on. As he watched the stars whiz by, a thought occurred to Thor.

“Loki?”

“Mmm?”

Thor licked his lips, “We survived Ragnarok.”

Loki snorted, “If this is just now occurring to you, you’re slower than I thought.”

“And not just us,” Thor continued, ignoring him, “ _ everything _ survived Ragnarok. Heimdall has said that the other eight realms continue on and that Yggdrasil is still largely intact, despite the root that was destroyed with Asgard. This has  _ never happened before _ .”

Loki sighed, “No,” he acknowledged, “it has not.”

It was a terrifying realisation, one that had clearly already occurred to Loki. “What happens next?” He wondered aloud, “What happens to The Cycle, what happens to us? We’ve never lived past Ragnarok before.”

“As far as we know,” Loki corrected. “All we know of the previous Cycles are what we have been told by the norns and by Odin, neither of whom have a particularly honest track record. For all we know this has all happened before. Maybe that was not a true Ragnarok, or maybe the chain reaction is slower than usual.”

“Or maybe The Cycle is broken.”

Loki huffed, “Do not waste time thinking of such things. There is no point in worrying about that which we may not control. Sleep.”

He wrapped his arm around Thor and pushed him down in the bed, so he was only propped up by pillows. Content with this new position, Loki drifted to sleep on Thor’s shoulder. Thor however, could not sleep. If he was right, and nothing like this had ever happened before, all the realms would be in chaos. Asgard’s rule had been all that kept the peace, now that Asgard was gone and the rest of the nine realms alive to see it for the first time in the history of all things, who knew what would happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! not much to say this week, its kinda a filler chapter... well kinda. I'd like to thank EVERYONE who comments, as usual it keeps me inspired, and I read every one, even if it takes me FOREVER to reply (or i don't at all, sorry)
> 
> So yesterday I saw some thorki fan art on tumblr and freaked the fuck out because it was almost exactly what i planned to write for the end scene of this chapter. And now I CAN'T FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIND IT. I'll try to find it and post a link next week... 
> 
> EDIT: Never mind, the wonderful firechildslytherin5 found the art for me! Here's the link: https://thedaydreamingcynic.tumblr.com/post/167975391048/oh-look-someone-caught-feels-again
> 
> Also if you guys want you should check out my tumblr! if you search the phrase 'from the ashes' i post all sorts of extra stuff there, right now I've got two playlists up, one for thor, one for loki, check them out ^_^
> 
> Next Thursday: Peter Parker: Omniglot


	7. Peter I - The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It had been raining for days. Dark clouds rolled over, unceasing. Lightning danced across them, spidering out in streaks of fractal light. Thunder crashed after it, adding it’s noise to the usual din of New York City. Peter couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the sky for more than a minute or two, entranced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the late chapter, this week has been HECTIC. I only really got the time to write this chapter yesterday, y'know, the day I was meant to post it... but it's still Thursday in parts of the world so we're all good XD.
> 
> So in this chapter I introduce Peter Parker, our beloved Earth protagonist. I've set this up as post homecoming so if you guys haven't seen the movie, you can [read this](http://iamjustalways.tumblr.com/post/168246144743/spider-man-homecoming-a-primer) for some basic information.
> 
> Anyway as usual, thanks to my betas, whose names you should know by now, as well as thanks to firechildslytherin5 for being awesome. Enjoy!

It had been raining for days. Dark clouds rolled over, unceasing. Lightning danced across them, spidering out in streaks of fractal light. Thunder crashed after it, adding it’s noise to the usual din of New York City. Peter couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the sky for more than a minute or two, entranced.

“Oh my God, how is he  _ doing  _ that?” Sarah Simon whispered next to him, finally allowing Peter to rip his gaze off the window. 

Sarah was usually pretty quiet in class and always paid attention to Mr Porter, but now she was poorly hiding her phone under her desk, watching some sort of video.

Peter glanced up to see Mr Porter still trying to figure out the sound system with Flash and, curious, leaned over to have a look. It was Mr Stark. He was holding some sort of press conference, fielding questions by the look of it, and seeming to become more frustrated with each question.

Confused, Peter asked, “How’s he doing what?”

Sarah glanced up quickly but mostly ignored him, handing Peter an airpod.

“-no I am not speaking anything but English,” Mr Stark was saying, clearly frustrated, “Listen is this some sort of prank or -”

“That’s what  _ we  _ want to know, Mr Stark! So far you’ve spoken at least half a dozen languages and you refuse to acknowledge it!”

“But I’ve only spoken English!”

Sarah paused the video. “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” she hissed,  “How can he switch between languages so quickly?”

“But he didn’t. He only spoke English.”

Sarah frowned, “No he didn’t. Didn’t you hear when he was first speaking? That was in French or something.”

“Something to share with the rest of the class, Sarah, Peter?”

The two jumped apart in their seats,“No Mr Porter,” they chorused. They’d been leaning across the aisle to talk with each other and Mr Porter had finally taken notice. Sarah turned off her phone and seemed to forget the whole situation, turning her attention back to Mr Porter.

Peter did not forget. Something weird was going on and it involved Mr Stark. That tickled at the back of Peter’s mind. By third period, the video was the buzz of the school, everyone had seen it. Mrs. Nguyen even projected it onto the whiteboard in English. The weirdest part of the video wasn’t that Mr Stark switched multiple times between different languages. It was his initial speech, before he started fielding questions. Apparently people only heard it in their first language, no matter what the language was.

Peter only heard the video in English, no matter how hard he tried to hear anything different. If he didn’t know any better, Peter would have suspected that it was all some elaborate prank of Mr Stark’s creation. But that was impossible… right?

What was he thinking, of course it was impossible. Peter was not that important. It was probably just some spider power that was only appearing now. 

His phone buzzed, jerking Peter out of his space out at his locker. After a moment of desperate fumbling he answered it.

“Mr. Stark?”

“What? No –  _ What _ _?_ No – it’s Ned, I have a situation, man. I have a really, really situation-y situation, like a ‘help me Obi-Wan Kenobi’ sort of situation. I need you to get over to mine  _ sta t _ _.”_ The sound of water splashing almost drowned out his voice.

“What?” Peter yelped, glancing around he hid his face in his locker he hissed, “why aren’t you at  _ schoo l ?” _

“Peter  _ I’m gl owing .” _

What? “Uh, congrats? Man, what the he-“

“No no no no no – I am  _ literally glowin g _ _._ I keep setting things on  _ fir e _ _._ I had to get in the shower just so it would stop and let me tell you, Mama is gonna  _ kill me  _ when she gets the water bill.”

_ What the hell _ _?_ Doing some quick calculations, Peter grabbed his backpack and headed toward the front of the school. Ned’s house was only 4 miles away, if he swung it he’d have to get changed and Aunt May would  _ murder  _ him if Spider-Man was spotted during school. He’d have to run it.

“Peter, are you there?” Ned’s far-off voice sounded like he was going to cry. Peter couldn’t handle it when Ned cried.

“Yeah I’m here bud, I’m gonna hang up. I’ll be there in  _ fifteen  _ minutes, okay? Not a second more.”

“Okay, okay, okay. I can – I can sit in the shower for fifteen minutes. I can.”

Peter hung up the phone and  _ ra n . _

-

He reached Ned’s house in thirteen minutes.

Not bothering with the door, Peter slipped into Ned’s bedroom window and stopped. The usually quasi-neat bedroom was in shambles. There were singe marks  _everywhere , _ on his desk, on his bed, on his wooden floors. Floors which Peter usually couldn’t see for the galaxy rug Ned kept on it but the rug was now crumpled against a wall, half burnt and slightly damp from where someone had poured a bucket of water over it.

He could hear the shower running in the bathroom down the hall and Peter didn’t even bother knocking. Ned was a hunched figure in the bottom of the running shower, face hidden behind his knees. Peter had half expected Ned to be shaking, sobbing or rocking himself to keep calm. Instead, he was perfectly still.

His hands were hidden in his lap but Peter could see light coming from between his legs.

“Ned?” Peter asked, creeping forward. Ned gave no indication of having heard him so Peter moved toward him a little more. He was just shy of the shower door when his friend finally spoke.

“What if I can’t stop it Peter?” His voice was miserable in ways that Peter had only heard a few times in their life together. Once, when Ned’s childhood pet dog had died and once when Ned had accidentally broken Mary Singer’s arm.

“Hey man, don’t say that.” Peter attempted, putting on what he hoped was a comforting voice. He crouched down outside the shower door to be at Ned’s eye level, though the other boy still wasn’t looking at him. “We can do anything together, you and me. Whatever is going on we’ll get through it, yeah?”

Ned looked up finally and Peter’s breath caught in his throat. Ned was  _ glowing _ _._ Or at least his eyes and hands were. It wasn’t like a torch was shining under his skin as Peter had half expected. Instead it was bright, white light, emanating from his eyes and fingertips. It was hot too, when Ned looked at him and that light fell onto Peter’s face it felt like turning his face up to the sun on a hot summer’s day.

“Woah, okay, you are  _ glowing .” _

Ned grimaced and it was still Ned, despite the freaky glowing eyes. “Told you, didn’t I?”

Peter’s mind raced, there had to be something he could do. “So, uh, Ned, What happened? Did you get bit by a radioactive lightbeam?”

“What - you - you think think I’m radioactive - oh god, oh god -” The light got brighter. Peter could now hear the water sizzling.

“Hey - no no no no no - sorry I was joking! I’m sure you’re not radioactive!” Peter was, in fact, not sure that he wasn’t radioactive. Peter was not sure of anything. A year ago he was a relatively normal teenager.  Now he had spider powers, hung out with Tony Stark on the weekends and his best friend in the whole world was glowing.

“Um, okay, Ned you need to tell me what happened, man. We can sort this out with the data right? We’re the data kings.”

“I don’t think computing is relevant right now, Peter.” Ned moaned, the light getting stronger.  “I’m supposed to be the guy in the chair. This doesn’t happen to the guy in the chair!”

“Ned! Focus!” Peter was getting desperate and he could feel himself getting a sunburn. “I need you to tell me when this started.”

“I just woke up like this! I woke up and I was burning everything I touched! I tried to stop it but nothing worked but this!” He gestured around him to the shower.

“Okay, okay,” Peter was in over his head, there was only one thing he could think to do, “I’m gonna call Mr. Stark.”

“No!” 

The world burst with light. It no longer came from Ned but from every direction, burning. It was all Peter could do to screw his eyes shut and launch himself out of the room on touch alone. Pain radiated from every surface of exposed skin and he felt it  _ blister _ _._ In the hallway it was duller and he risked opening his eyes and then wished he hadn’t. They’d only been exposed for a second but the world was made up of whorls of green and red spots. He couldn’t see.  _ He couldn’t see . _

“Peter? Peter? Oh god - oh  _ god _ \- Peter? Please be okay - _ Peter ! _ _”_ Ned was sobbing now and it took everything Peter had not to join him.

“I’m okay!” He lied, had to lie for Ned’s sake. Maybe it wasn’t totally a lie, with every blink more of his vision cleared, and the burns would likely heal in a few hours. He was okay. He  _ was  _ okay. Fishing out his phone he called, “I’m gonna call Mr Stark!”

Ned choked out a sob. “They’re gonna do experiments on me, aren’t they?”

“Hey, no,” Peter soothed, as much as he could from a room away. “Mr Stark didn’t do any experiments on me, did he?”

“...No.”

Peter could see a bit more now, enough to notice the light in the bathroom dim back to the state it was before. Peter would have even gone back inside, if he hadn’t been in the state he was now.

“I’m gonna call Mr Stark now, Ned, okay?”

“...okay.”

Peter fumbled with his phone blindly, relieved that he’d at least saved Mr. Stark to his speed dial. He hit what he hoped to be the right button and let it ring out.

“Tony here. I don’t listen to this shit so if you want me to know something send me a text for Pete’s sake.”

Okay, he got the right one. Peter hung up before the beep and hit redial. He let the phone ring three times and hung up, then repeated two more times. On the fifth call he let it ring again.

“This had better actually be important kid, I’m really busy here.”

Oh thank God, the emergency signal had worked.

“My friend’s glowing.”

There was a pause. “Okay I’m assuming you’re not calling me to gush about how good your friend is taking to her pregnancy.”

“No - I - I need help, Mr Stark. My friend, Ned is, like, emitting light and the light is  _ hot _ _._ He’s been starting fires all over his room. The only way to stop it was by sitting in the shower. I don’t know what to do. He needs help.  _ I  _ need help, I -” Peter paused then, and debated whether to tell Mr Stark about how he was hurt.

In the end he decided against it. If he came and Peter was healed than he would look stupid for asking for help. He was fine.  _ Reall y . _

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone. Peter imagined Mr Stark was debating whether or not this was really worth an emergency call. Then -

“I’m on my way.” And the line went dead. Peter didn’t even bother wondering how Mr. Stark would find them, Big Brother was watching and her name was FRIDAY.

“What’s happening?” Ned called from the other room, sounding far away and alone. He was calmer though, that was something.

“Mr. Stark’s on his way.” Peter replied and prayed he would be quick.

Peter and Ned spent the half hour it took Mr. Stark to arrive in uncharacteristic silence. After ten minutes or so, Peter was well and truly relieved to have his vision mostly back to normal. In celebration of this, he inspected the damage. His hands and neck got the worst of it, as far as he could tell. His skin was starkly pink, with little blisters scattered throughout. Just moving enough to see himself stung like the worst sunburn he’d ever had. All in all it wasn’t too bad, he wouldn’t be surprised if the damaged cleared within the hour; enhanced healing was cool that way.

In fact, by the time Mr Stark arrived, the pink skin had already begun peeling off. Still, when he came up the stairs and saw Peter sitting in the hall he did a double take.

“What happened?” He demanded, kneeling in front of Peter and taking his wrists gingerly in both hands, turning them this way and that. Peter hissed at the contact and pulled away, shrugging to hide his wince.

“I told you, he’s glowing hot. He freaked out when I said I was gonna call you.”

Mr. Stark frowned, glancing toward the bathroom where the shower was still running. “He hurt you?”

Fear flashed through Peter, sudden and intense. “He didn’t mean it! He’s scared - He’s scared, and he’s my friend ,and I would take a thousand sun burns for him happily.”

Mr Stark held his hands up in defense, “Woah there, Kiddo, it’s okay. I’m sure you’re right. I’m just going to head in there and talk to him, okay? You said the light got worse when he was scared?”

Peter nodded.

“Then maybe we just need to calm him down. That’s all I’m going to try to do, I promise.”

And Peter believed him, because how could he not? Mr Stark had been there for him through so much. If he wasn’t trustworthy, who was? So Peter sat back and picked at the peeling skin on his hands while his mentor moved past him and into the room where his best friend was glowing. Useless as always.

“Hey kid,” Mr Stark murmured, low enough that Peter assumed he wasn’t supposed to overhear. “Peter tells me you’ve been having some problems.”

“H - hi Mr Stark, I - I’m sorry you had to come here.”

“Hey no are you kidding me? I love to drop everything and fly to a random house in New York.” That got a giggle out of Ned, much to Peter’s relief. “Really though, kid,” he continued, “this sort of thing’s right up my alley lately, it’s why Peter called me, he’s a smart kid, your friend. He knows that I’m gonna try my best to help you.”

“I… I think I hurt him, Mr Stark.” Ned whispered and it was like a confession. Peter flinched at the shame in his voice and wished it wasn’t the truth.

Mr Stark didn’t say anything for a long moment after that, then, “Peter’s fine. He’s more worried about you than anything. I’m not though.”

“You’re not worried about me? But I’m…”

“A little glow-y? Sure. But that’s nothing to worry about. I used to be a little glow-y too. I know a lot of people that glow it up sometimes. You’ll be fine. We’ll take a trip upstate and we’ll have this all sorted out.”

“What you’re gonna take me to the Avenger’s headquarters? Cool!”

“See that’s the spirit. Why don’t you get out of that shower and get dry.”

Ned hesitated, “When I’m not in the shower I set fire to stuff.”

“When you’re glowing, right?”

“Right.”

“Well you’re not glowing now, are you?”

There was a startled gasp from the room and Peter grinned. How on Earth had Mr Stark known that the best way to calm Ned down was to distract him? Why hadn’t Peter thought of that?

“I’m gonna let you get dried off. Come out when you’re ready.” 

Peter heard shuffling and the water finally shutting off. He looked up at the door to see Mr Stark come through and shut the door behind him and Peter almost did a double take. From his tone in the bathroom, Peter expected him to be relaxed, mirth in his warm brown eyes. Instead his shoulders were haunched and his mouth formed a hard line that only ever boded ill. He looked down at Peter for a long moment and Peter looked back, wordless.

Mr Stark sighed then, and offered Peter a hand to stand up. “Show me his room.”

Ned’s room was still as much a disaster zone as it had been a half hour ago. Mr Stark stopped at the door and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t suppose the kid’s parents have a strict privacy policy and would never dare enter their son’s room unannounced?”

Peter grimaced. “Ned’s Mum likes to make sure he’s folded his underwear correctly.”

“Okay,” Mr Stark sighed again, “what time do his parents get home? I’ll get a cleanup team to come through and sort this out.”

“Um, Mrs Leeds is a doctor, she works at a practice up the road. She usually finishes at six. Mr Leeds drives a bus. I don’t know when he gets back. Wait - are we not going to tell Ned’s parents?”

“Tell them what? That their son glows in the dark? They’d panic and try to take him to a hospital and that would be so not good for him its not funny. Hopefully we can sort all this out upstate and the kid can go back to doing whatever he did before this whole thing.”

“You - you think you can stop it?” Mr Stark eyed him for a moment then left without a word.

After Ned and Mr Stark disappeared over the horizon with Iron Man, Peter was left alone to wait for the ‘cleaning crew’ with instructions to help them set Ned’s room back to rights.

Sitting on Ned’s porch step Peter’s eyes were drawn invariably back to the sky. The rain had stopped, but the shifting clouds loomed overhead like an omen. Lightning sparked and thunder rumbled and Peter suddenly knew that something, somewhere was terribly, horribly wrong.

Maybe it was just nerves over whatever was going on with Ned. Maybe it was Mr Stark’s face when he came out of the bathroom. Maybe it was the video. Maybe it was nothing. It was probably nothing. But…

Peter couldn’t take his eyes away from the sky.

-

The ride upstate was quiet. Peter usually couldn’t stand the silence and filled it with anything that popped into his head. This annoyed Happy, he knew, but he couldn’t really help it. Today, Peter couldn’t speak.

The storm stayed with Peter for the entire journey, capturing his attention. It wasn’t until they were pulling up at the training facility that Peter was able to snap out of it. Peter said a hasty goodbye to Happy and ran inside through the deluge, only getting slightly soaked in the process.

“Good afternoon, Master Parker,” FRIDAY’s warm voice greeted him as soon as the sliding doors shut behind him. The glass effectively cut off the outside noise.

“Afternoon, FRIDAY,” Peter called at the ceiling in general, while he hopped on one foot trying to pull off his wet shoes. “Where’s the boss-man and Ned?” 

“Your friend is in examination room three and the boss is in his office. He’d like me to tell you to get changed out of your wet clothes before you do anything else.”

Peter nodded, already on the way to his room. To his utter lack of surprise it was, as always, slightly different than he had left it the Monday before. It confused Peter to no end, whatever method the weekly cleaning crew used to determine what was to be cleaned and what was to be left alone. One week he would return to find all his left socks missing with nothing else touched, another week saw all his clothes folded neatly on the bed, including what had been in his closet. This time, as far as he could tell, the meagre collection of books he kept at the facility had been alphabetised and stacked on his window frame.

Shaking his head, Peter lobbed his damp clothes into the hamper. He dug out a new outfit from the pile that had been pulled off the hangers to lie crumpled on the wardrobe’s floor. Satisfactorily dry, Peter trotted back up the hall toward the med block.

Ned was perched on the edge of an examination table in exam room three, looking around the facility with naked awe. Peter had to hide a grin when he knocked on the door and Ned jerked. His face lit up when he saw Peter - thankfully not literally.

“Peter! This is  _ so cool.  _ I’m in the Avengers headquarters! How have you survived coming here every weekend without your head exploding?”

Peter wished he could be surprised at Ned’s sudden change in demeanor but… “I  _ know  _ right? The amount of unreleased tech in  _ just this room  _ was enough to make me squeal a little when I first came here.”

Following Peter’s example, Ned let out a high pitch sound that was possibly even  _ more  _ embarrassing than when Peter did it. Peter grinned and climbed up onto the table beside Ned.

“Is there, like, a training room where you train with the Avengers? Does Mr Stark have a workshop here? Did he let you in it?” he gasped “- will he let  _ me  _ in it?”

“Yes, yes, yes and I don’t know.” Peter laughed. “Probably not, he only let me in it after two months of begging, and I’m not really allowed to touch anything outside of this little area he gave me. He might let you in with me though, if you stay here for a while.” Peter frowned, having reminded himself why Ned was really here in the first place. This wasn’t some sort of sleepover. This was serious.

“Do you know anything about that? How long you’ll be here?  _ Why  _ you’re here in the first place?”

Ned’s face fell, gaze slinking down to the hands in his lap. “No,” he bemoaned, “it hasn’t happened since back at my house. Some people came in and examined me about twenty minutes ago but they said that they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. On the plus side, I’m not radioactive, on the minus for all we know I could, like,  _ blow up _ at any second.”

Peter frowned, “Did Mr Stark say how long you’re staying for?”

Ned shrugged, “He said ‘we’ll play it by ear.’ He got me to call Mama and tell her I was staying with you for the weekend, though so I know I’m staying that long. I don’t know what I’ll do if I need to stay longer.”

“Hello Mr Parker,” a snide voice cut in from the doorway. Peter did his best to hide a flinch as he turned to see his least favourite facility resident in the doorway, equipped with his usual pinched face, tiny glasses and white coat combination.

“Hi, Dr Smolwene.” Really, you make connections between a guy’s surname and his manly bits  _ one time  _ and he hates you forever more. Peter was  _ fifteen _ , if he didn’t make immature jokes now, he’d regret it for the rest of his life!

Dr Smolwene stiffened, looking down at them from his abnormally large nose. “If you are done  _ idly chatting _ _,_ I would see to my patient -  _ alone .” _

Not needing to be told twice, Peter gave Ned what he hoped was an encouraging pat on the back and left them to it. Even his concern for his best friend couldn’t keep him in the same room as Dr Small-Ween for more than a minute at a time.

He was about to make for Mr Stark’s office when he heard the man’s voice floating in from the opposite direction. Since he was going to see him anyway, Peter figured it was better to just follow the voice rather than wait for Mr Stark in his office.

“... how many does this make?” Peter stopped just outside the door at the end of the hall. Was that-?

“Eight, including us,” Mr Stark replied, sounding tired, “all with different manifestations. The only similarity we can find is the language understanding. There’s no correlation in gender, ethnicity, blood type, damn  _ hair colour _ _._ None of them have any history of this kind of phenomenon. It’s like the universe just decided everything was getting  _ too normal  _ and rewrote itself. Daria’s running genetic profiles now, though, so we might -”

“Boss, you’ve got a lurker.”

_ Dammit FRIDAY _ . With the jig up, Peter straightened and came around the corner, grinning sheepishly. Mr Stark and another, smaller man sat at the table. They fixed him with startlingly similar unimpressed stares. Peter felt a spark of disappointment at the sight of the smaller man, he’d thought - oh well it was only wishful thinking. He knew Mr Stark wasn’t on good terms with Captain America, knew it first hand. The man  _ did _ kind of look like him. Kinda. If you squinted.

“Heeey Mr Stark I just saw - someone - running -” he jerked his thumb behind him, shaking his head “- I tried to catch him but he was just so  _ darn  _ slippery.”

Mr Stark raised an eyebrow but there was humour in his eyes and the stranger barked out a startled laugh.

“Yeah, you’re not fooling anyone, kiddo,” Mr Stark said, “how much did you hear? And before you try, I’m not buying the ‘earwax buildup’ excuse either, so don’t bother.”

Peter, who had  _ absolutely not  _ been about to reach up, and pretend to clear out his ear rerouted his hand to cover up a  _ totally real  _ cough.

“Not much! I promise. Just that there are apparently eight people - including you two - who have ‘manifested’ something? And that you all have that weird language switcheroo thing that you did at that press conference.”

“Not much at all,” Mr Stark drawled, the stranger laughed again.

“I like him,” he said. “What’s your name, son?”

“Uh, Peter.” Peter held his hand out to shake. The stranger met him with a hand so thin that Peter feared he’d break him as soon as touch him.

“Steve,” he said, and Peter nearly fainted.

“Wait, you  _ are  _ Captain America.”

Steve -  _ Captain America _ \- smiled ruefully, “Never thought I’d miss being recognised on sight. You’re that Spider-Man kid, right?”

Peter nodded. This was  _ so cool _ _._ “Yeah, that’s me. But how -” He cut himself off, realising how rude the question was at the last minute. A second later, Mr Stark’s hand clapped down onto his shoulder.

“Alright, Peter, why don’t you and I leave Steve alone and head to my office. You know the rules.”

Peter sighed. Yes, he knew the rules. “Couldn’t you bend them a little,  _ one time _ _?”_ He whined, Mr Stark was already steering him out of the room.

“I already have. You came to see your friend when you got here didn’t you?”

Peter sighed, that was true. But still.  _ Captain America _ _._ And whatever was going on with Ned and the others was way more interesting than homework. But Peter had learned not to argue with Mr Stark about Friday afternoon homework so he allowed himself to be shuffled out of the room and led back to Mr Stark’s office. Without a word, Mr Stark went to his desk and Peter took up his usual spot on the floor next to the low coffee table by the window and took out his homework.

Friday afternoon homework had become of ritual of theirs, over the past few months since Peter had started spending his weekends at the Avenger’s facility. The first day, after Aunt May had angrily dropped him off, yelling that if Mr Stark was going to allow Peter to parade around as a superhero than he’d better train him, Mr Stark hadn’t known what to do with Peter. He’d just gestured vaguely to the coffee table and told him to do his homework before anything else. From then on, that was the rule: before anything else was done on Friday afternoon, Peter and Mr Stark would sit quietly in Mr Stark’s office while Peter did his homework.

Peter didn’t normally mind. It was kinda nice and it didn’t normally take Peter more than an hour or so to get all his weekend homework done. Today however, was just not Peter’s day. His mind raced with far more interesting things than nuclear fusion. The floor to ceiling windows brought back the ever-present distraction that was the storm. All in all, it took him two and a half  _ excruciating  _ hours to finish his homework.

But eventually, he was done. He gathered up his things and took his work to Mr Stark, who looked over it, making minor corrections every now and then. Peter found himself bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited.

“So,” Mr Stark said eventually, leaning back in his chair and  _ finally  _ putting the papers aside, “I suppose you want to talk about what you overheard.”

“I - well - yes.” Peter plopped himself in the chair opposite his desk and Mr Stark huffed.

“You know you didn’t need to sneak around, right? I was going to tell you anyway. If I wasn’t we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Peter shrugged. He didn’t doubt that, what he did doubt is if he’d be let in on  _ Captain America _ being one of the people affected by whatever was going on.

“For the past, say, week or so strange things have been happening.” Mr Stark continued, “People have been developing abilities that they didn’t have before, they become much stronger than the normal human and all pre-existing health problems seem to disappear. The most obvious thing they have in common is their language capabilities go through the roof, they can suddenly understand, speak and read every language  _ ever _ as if it was their native language. As you know I’m one of the people affected and I can absolutely attest to  _ every  _ language, I pulled up a wikipedia page of untranslatable texts and read them like books.”

Mr Stark could translate dead languages? That was kind of absolutely amazing. The archaeological value of that was enormous.

“And Ned’s one of these people? Like, he can speak every language?”

Mr Stark nodded, “We had some of the non-native English speakers hear test him, he switched to cantonese, russian and finnish without the speaker giving any indication of what their first language was. I’ve been meaning to ask you - have you had anything weird happen to you in the last week?”

Peter thought back and drew a blank, “Not really, I think I’d remember something as big as developing a new power.”

Mr Stark leaned forward, intent, “It may be subtler with you, you already have super strength and enhanced healing. Do you remember at any point understanding a sign that’s usually in another language or has someone looked at you strangely while you were talking to them?”

Peter shrugged, “Nope.”

Mr Stark smiled at him and leaned back, stretching his arms over his head before rising. “Well that’s a relief, I’ve got enough on my plate as it is, I wouldn’t want to be worrying about you through this whole thing. C’mon, kiddo, we’ll go fetch your friend and get him set up in the spare room next to yours.” Mr Stark headed toward the door and Peter scrambled to follow him and -

Thunder shook the building, Mr Stark fell forward onto his hands and knees and the only way Peter kept his balance through the wall of sound was his spider powers.

“Boss, there’s an intruder on the front lawn.”

Mr Stark turned back to look at Peter. “Wait here.” And shot forward like a sprinter in a race. Peter waited all of two seconds and ran after him.

All the way to the main entrance Peter expected some sort of attack, a follow up to the initial attack but nothing came. Sprinting behind him, Peter watched Mr Stark’s suit form around his and sorely wished for his own suit, tucked away in his room. Peter skidded around the corner to the entrance just as Iron Man took flight and Peter saw her - standing in smoke rising from the brunt grass all around her.

The intruder was a woman, tall with a mane of dark hair and wild eyes. She was gaunt and bloody and missing an arm and was dressed like a character in a TV show, _Xena: Warrior Princess_ in real life.

“Who the fuck are you?” Mr Stark growled, the sound garbled through his suit, repulsor already raised.

“I am Sif of Asgard. I bear ill news.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Yay! Sif's alive! Well, most of her... And the plot thickens...
> 
> What did you guys think of the first Peter chapter? I had a real struggle writing him, his character is similar enough to Thor's that I found it really difficult writing PETER and not Thor. Damn happy people...
> 
> The last little bit of the chapter is unbeta'd because I wanted to post this ASAP, gosh I hate being late. Hopefully I'll be on time again next Thursday. Speaking of which:
> 
> Next Thursday: The hunt is on.


	8. The Trees Have Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At first the forest was like any other. Trees and scrub, dirt and decaying leaves. The light filtered through the leaves, dancing and shifting with the whims of the wind. There was life here, surrounding them on all sides, pressing in, watching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> So uh, two and a half weeks...  
> As usual, thanks to simplykayley & astalitha for being amazing betas & to firchildslytherin5 for being just amazing.

Thor watched the planet grow larger from the bridge. He could feel the excitement rising, sparking through his fingers. In just a few hours he would go on a hunt. The ship’s information described a green planet, land with lush vegetation and speckled with small blue lakes, but Thor could only spot glimpses occasionally through the thick canopy of clouds.

“So, what are we dealing with then?” Thor asked, off to his right where Loki was hovering just out of sight, as usual. Loki huffed in fake exasperation. He couldn’t fool Thor though, he knew that he’d been gathering information on the planet for Thor.

Sure enough, after a moment he began. “The planet is warmer than Asgard. It has temperate climate with tropical zones around the equator. The water migrates from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere and back over the course of its solar year. The days are approximately 34 hours long. The water is currently around the equator so we must land either in the far north or the far south. Luckily, this is exactly where we want to go. The southern hemisphere is where the beasts live and the northern hemisphere has much in the way of edible and medicinal wildlife.

“We will land on the southern hemisphere as most of the people have expressed wishes to go hunting. I will be taking the  _ Commodore  _ with volunteers to the northern hemisphere to work gathering and will return in three days.” He glanced up to Thor, making sure this was reasonable and Thor inclined his head.

“Alright,” He said, clapping his hands together, allowing a grin to take over his face. “take us in.” This was gonna be  _ great. _

The ship jerked forward, sending Thor stumbling. Loki tumbled to the floor beside him. 

“Sorry!” Vigi winced, adjusting the hologram to slow the descent. “Sorry, this is my first time with the sub-lightspeed controls.”

“I think I might take over.” Phora declared, swiping the hologram over to her.

Okay,  _ now  _ it was gonna be great.

-

To say that the descent to the planet was rough may have been a small understatement. The thick cloud cover and the densely wooded terrain made it nearly impossible to find a place to safely land. The ship had not been built to navigate the high speed winds of the upper atmosphere. Eventually they found an open field, perfect for their needs, and landed successfully.

When they landed, Astrid made a ship wide announcement to meet in the throne room. The throne room was the best large observation area on the ship, so it was already quite full when Thor arrived. Pausing a moment, he gathered the cloak of his father around him once more, drew back his shoulders and strode through the crowd regally, Loki at his right shoulder.

When he got to the throne, the room silenced. Hundreds of expectant faces once more turned toward him, today a little less broken.

Thor allowed himself a small smile. “I know we are all eager to be outside so I will keep this brief. We will be staying here for four local days. Those of you who have formed hunting parties are free to leave whenever they wish, but we ask that you aim to return at least a day in advance and let someone who is staying behind know that you are going. Now if you plan to go after the  _ kovick,  _ we ask that you go to see either Heimdall or Vigi before you leave as they have information on the beasts that you must know.”

There were eager nods scattered across the throne room and Thor had to restrain a grin. “Right,” he said, clapping his hands together. “let’s get out of here.”

-

It took them an hour to set up outside the ship. Groups worked together to clear surrounding trees, chopping them down with crude tools found on the ship. Thor had never been so grateful that the Asgardians had kept their ties to the land, rather than using their technology to do the work for them. Most Asgardians knew how to fell a tree, how to strip it of its branches, and split the wood to form a makeshift shelter.

They set up lean-tos against the ship, keeping shade for those that weren’t going far. Thor lent his hands to the effort, dragging logs from the treeline to where the woodworkers were bending saplings into ropes to tie planks together. Meanwhile, those with less strength wandered around the clearing, picking up dead branches and twigs and dried grass for the fires.

When the camp was set, the shelters built and fires burning, Thor ventured back into the ship to find the girls.

Hilde, Turid and Astrid had kept the children back in the main hall while they waited to be picked up by families that had agreed to take them for their time on the planet. Hilde had decided that it would be irresponsible for so few people to be watching so many children outside. She had asked for volunteers to take charge of one or two children each on the planet, and many had agreed. The three women were left with only twenty children to watch themselves. This remaining group would be joining Loki on the northern continent to help with gathering supplies.

Thor had laughed at Loki the night before when he’d heard of the arrangement. Loki didn’t  _ hate  _ children, he just didn’t like to have them interfering with his work. Now he would have twenty to deal with. If Thor hadn’t been so looking forward to a good hunt, he might have joined them just to watch Loki desperately cling to his patience while the children did what children do.

The girls were sitting leaning against the throne, peering out the window with eager curiosity. Each of them wore their training clothes and had packs resting at their sides.

“Are we ready to get going?” Thor asked.

The girls jumped to their feet. “We are  _ absolutely  _ ready. We’ve got everything you asked us to take, see?” No-Name lifted her pack for Thor’s inspection. He was pleased to see they had followed his instructions. The pack held some cloth-wrapped parcels of food, a compass and homing beacon, and a flask filled with water.

“Wonderful!” Thor beamed, slapping the girl on the back then grabbing her to keep her from tumbling forward. “Alright we’ll just go get you your weapons and we’ll be ready to go.”

He turned on his heels and strode out of the throne room, waving merrily to Astrid on his way. He could hear the girls scrambling behind him. He could practically feel their excitement, and didn’t bother hiding his grin. He remembered the excitement of his first weapon, the anticipation, the curiosity as to what weapon his master would choose.

Thor didn’t have as much of a choice as his master had. The armoury aboard the ship consisted mostly of energy shooters. Although there was a small mismatch of weapons his people had brought aboard.. Everything from fine swords used for decoration. to garden hoes still crusted with blood, rested against the ships armoury walls. Still, when he lead the girls in, they looked around the room with naked awe.

“Can we pick our own weapons?” No-Name asked.

“Eventually you can, when you have trained for longer.” Thor said, leading the girls further into the armoury to where he had stored the weapons he had picked for them. “Today, however, you will be getting weapons that all Asgardian warriors are trained in before anything else.”

Picking the weapons from the wall, he offered them to the girls, and grinned when their faces fell. Oh how  _ sweet  _ it was to pay his suffering forward. This must have been how Master Jorn felt, whenever he had that annoying twinkle in his eye.

“Well, take your weapons,” he prompted, moving his hands out further.

It was Gyda who spoke first, “But it’s… they’re…”

“They’re  _ sticks.” _ No interrupted, horrified.

“They’re  _ staffs,”  _ Thor corrected, offering the two staffs up again. Hesitantly, they took the weapons. He’d been incredibly pleased to find them in the armoury. They were a bit too long for the girls, adult weapons instead of the smaller training staff he had as a child. They would have to do.

“Um,” Gyda started, eyes still travelling over her staff. It was metallic with a golden sheen, the weapon of one of the fallen gladiators. “What are we supposed to… do… with it?”

Thor shrugged, “Hopefully nothing. All young warriors are first trained on staffs. They’re light, relatively easy to control but are good practice for spears and for honing your reflexes. They are decent blunt weapons and excellent in defence. And, best of all, well suited to smaller, weaker fighters like children.”

Gyda frowned, “But we’re going hunting.”

Thor grinned, “Yes.”

The girls both glanced down at their weapons skeptically, “Um, how are we supposed to… use them?”

“You don’t. Not on the hunt. Remember, you won’t be interacting with the beasts. I want you getting used to the weight of them. We’ll do sets as we move.” He watched the girls disappointed frowns for a moment longer before he couldn’t stand it anymore. “Well come on, we don’t have all day for you to admire your staffs, we need to pick up your sax’s as well.”

As one the girls lit up. “We get a  _ sax?”  _ No-Name demanded. Thor just kept grinning, moving to the side where the sax knives rested in their sheaths where he had set them the day before. 

When he was young, everyone carried a knife of some description, man woman and child. It was just too useful to avoid. In recent years, however, carrying knives grew out of fashion, unless you were a warrior. Thor wanted to try to revive the tradition now. If only people still carried their knives on them, and knew how to use them, many would still be alive.

The sax knife was more a weapon than a tool. It was almost a short sword really, and the favoured secondary weapon of many, including Thor. Before Mjolnir, he’d lost inumerable hammers in the heat of battle, but he had always been able to rely on his sax to get him out of trouble. The weapons he found the girls were simple fares, with plain wooden handles giving way to simple blades. But again, they would suffice.

Thor showed the girls how to connect their sheaths from their belts so that they hung almost horizontally across their laps for quick access. Once they had done so, he instructed them to draw their blades. “Carefully,” he cautioned, remembering when he first handled a sax and almost took off his thumb.

The girls drew the knives and looked upon them with reverence. Thor was struck with how akin they were to him in spirit. One day these girls would make fine warriors; if they chose to continue after their punishment was finished.

Giving them their moment, Thor bid them to return the knives to their sheaths. “Keep them sheathed,” he instructed, gathering his own gear and marching out of the armoury. “I’m only giving them to you now because they will be useful when it comes to cleaning our kills. We will be training with the staffs for now.”

“How do we carry them?” Gyda asked, scurrying to keep up with him.

“Use them as walking sticks for now, you are both too short to carry them across your backs as some do.”

They met with Phora at the entrance to the ship. She carried some sort of gun at her back and had a bag slung across her shoulders. She’d tied a strip of fabric around her head to keep her growing hair out of her eyes.

“We ready to go then?” she asked. The girls stared up at her with wide eyes.

“Just about.” Thor fingered the spear he’d tied across his back to make sure it was in place. He looked around for Loki, and spotted the mischief god reading from a tablet by  _ The Commodore.  _ Astrid was not too far off, packing boxes into the small ship. Thor loped over to the pair and waved a greeting when they looked up at him.

“Ready to leave?” He asked.

Loki shrugged, “Soon. Lady Astrid is packing the supplies for the ten children who will be joining us.” He couldn’t hide the distated curl of his lips as he spoke of the children.

Thor frowned, “I thought twenty were with you?”

“Ten with Prince Loki and I, ten with Hilde and Turid. The young ones and those who do not wish to go are staying with the ship.” Astrid explained, wiping sweat from her brow. “Is your party leaving soon, your Majesty?”

“We were just about to leave. We’ll set out to the south and will likely start heading back in a day and a half. The girls have homing beacons in their packs, I’ve sent you a message with their serial numbers, Loki.”

“Good luck, Your Majesty.” Astrid said, eyes sparkling with warmth, Loki barely glanced up, just nodded absently down at his list.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll get going then.” Thor jerked his thumb back to Phora and the girls, still Loki didn’t glance up, only hummed in acknowledgement. With one final smile for Astrid, Thor collected his party and set off into the undergrowth towards the south, ignoring the ache in his chest.

-

At first the forest was like any other. Trees and scrub, dirt and decaying leaves. The light filtered through the leaves, dancing and shifting with the whims of the wind. There was life here, surrounding them on all sides, pressing in, watching.

Thor showed the girls sets to run through while walking. They did so diligently, focusing on their new staffs with determined concentration as they moved forward through the day. Thor didn’t pay them much mind. Instead he watched the trees. They were clearly trees, but they were like nothing he’d ever seen. They glinted slightly when the light caught them right, as if tiny eyes peered out at him from within. 

The hum of insects and the animal calls were also alien, burbling coughs and indistinct chitters would occasionally waft from the distance. He didn’t  _ know  _ these sounds. They were not the sounds of any of the creatures he’d find in the nine realms. His stomach twist and turned with every step he took further. He listened to the whisper of the wind and the hum of insects and tried to ignore the growing weight in the pit of his stomach. This world felt…  _ wrong. _

He was being foolish. This planet was well documented in the ship for hunting, and had no terribly dangerous predators. It felt ‘off’ because it was off. He was too used to the wilds of the nine realms. The girls didn’t have any sort of problems with it, they just focused on their forms as they walked, occasionally making a whispered joke to throw the other off.

Phora didn’t seem upset either. She watched the game trail they followed with rapt attention, looking for any sign of their prey. After hours of walking, they stopped to rest in a small clearing by a tiny creek. Phora fetched out a line from her pack and threw it into the water. Thor watched the girls with a sparkle in his eyes as they collapsed onto the ground as if they’d been walking for days. After a minute, Gyda climbed back to her feet and went to sit beside Phora, watching the line.

No was in a much worse position than Gyda, though she tried not to show it. 

He crouched down by her. “Are you okay?” he asked, in what he hoped was a suitably low voice. She glanced up at him, and he was sure if her face could get any redder it would.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled. “I just need a bit of rest - I can keep up.” Thor held his hands up in defence and plopped down next to her.

“I’m sure you can.” he assured her. It was true, she had kept up so far. However he definitely wouldn’t ask them to continue their sets while walking, that had been a bit of a stupid idea. Sure,  _ he  _ could do it, but he’d had years of training.

While Phora and Gyda fished, Thor and No took out their packed food and ate. Thor watched No pick delicately at her fruit, always conscious of making a mess. Not for the first time, Thor wondered what her life was like, Before. By now though, Thor knew better than to ask.

After an hour’s rest, having caught nothing, Phora and Gyda pulled their lines in, and they were back on the trail again. Thor saw the tracks for many small and medium sized animals along the trail, but never caught sight of the  _ kovick’s  _ distinctive three pawed stride. The highlight of the afternoon came when they rounded the corner in the trail, and found a short, fat, pig-like creature eating away at the scrub, ignoring them entirely. Without a second thought, Phora sent a shot straight into its brain.

The pig-creature was too heavy for Phora to lift, so Thor slung the thing across his shoulders. He was surprised when he felt how light it really was, and wondered at Phora’s strength. She certainly appeared well muscled, and she had clearly held her own in the gladiatorial fights, yet she couldn’t have more strength than an average human.

Not long after, they stopped for the night in a clearing off the track. Thor cleaned the pig-creature a little roughly, as the girls watched. Thankfully neither were too put off by the sight and smell - if they could not handle killing for food, they could never handle the horrors of battle.

While he butchered the meat, Phora built up a lively campfire. This at least was familiar. They roasted chunks of meat over the fire and told stories. Thor wasn’t as good at telling stories as Loki: Loki could weave the tales of the life and death of the universe with mastery that captivated all. Thor did like to think he was decent at it though. He told them what he did through Ragnarok, making sure to embellish the tale with little jokes along the way that had his girls helpless with laughter.

“Was that  _ true?”  _ Gyda asked, after his story was done, firelight flickering on her tanned skin.

“The part where he fought the Hulk was definitely true - including the absurdities - although he didn’t mention that he was defeated.” Phora scoffed. The girls looked up at him, scandalized.

Thor held his hands up in defence. “ _ I  _ defeated the Hulk and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. As I said the Hulk cheated.”

“You collapsed on the ground.”

“Exactly! Cheating. You believe me girls, don’t you?” The girls glanced at each other then shook their heads as one, grinning. Thor clutched at his chest, a little dramatically perhaps. “Betrayed by my own apprentices. That hurts, girls, that hurts.”

The girls burst into another fit of giggles, warming Thor’s heart more surely than any fire. He glanced up at Phora whose eyes sparked with mirth.

“What about you, Phora, what’s your story?” He asked. The blue skinned woman blinked in surprise.

“Oh I don’t have much of a story,” she chuckled, “certainly nothing as interesting as yours, captain. I was born on an old trading ship,  _ Starglider _ , on the route from Kree to Symphat 4. I grew up on the ship, doing that very same run.” The smile was gone from her face now, Thor’s and the girl’s gone with it. They watched her as Phora stared into the fire. “Three months to Symphat, a month there, three months back to Kree, rinse and repeat. Sometimes we did other trades but we were the only ship that went to Symphat and my father was keen to keep it that way.

“One day we ran into mechanical problems that had us re-route the heating system to the engines. The ship got cold, too cold. Some people died from hypothermia, my father, the captain, was one of them.” Phora blinked, shaking herself out of her reverie she smiled thinly up at them. “Anyway I became captain too young, ran into some trouble and ended up as a gladiator on Sakaar. As I said, not very interesting.”

Thor said nothing for a moment out of respect for what was clearly a difficult topic. No-Name, however, was less respectful.

“Are you gonna go back to Kree?” She asked, “When, y’know, we get to one of the Novan colonies?”

Phora smiled, “There’s nothing for me on Kree, or anywhere really. No, I’ve been sort of planning to stick with you guys. Hardly anyone ever gets to go to Terra, I’m curious.”

No-Name frowned, “Terra?”

“Another name for Midgard.” Gyda supplied, taking a bite of meat.

“Why are there so many names? Midgard, Earth, now Terra?” She looked to Gyda in question but she just shrugged.

And that was a point. Why  _ did  _ Earth have so many names? It wasn’t like it was a particularly special planet, all things considered. The conversation continued while Thor spent a minute contemplating it before shrugging it off. Life was full of peculiarities like that and he’d learnt no to focus too hard on it. If it was important Loki would bring it to-

Thor flinched, quickly covering it up with a grin when the girls looked at him in askance. Suddenly furious at himself, he was in no mood for conversation, no mood for food. Climbing to his feet he said some quick word about relieving himself and left in the direction of the trees.

He didn’t think about where he was going, too lost in his turbulent mind to care. Not even a week with Loki and already he was falling into old patterns. Already taking his good will for granted. Somehow only a week of close quarters and his mind already believed that Loki would always be there, would always look out for his best interest.

He wouldn’t. He  _ knew  _ he wouldn’t. He knew thinking that Loki would was an offence to Loki in and of itself, who knew what myriad of other ways he’d already offended the man who was his brother. Maybe for now Loki was siding with him, but one day that would change again. That was the nature of him, the nature of them. Thor would fall into trusting Loki, Loki would become offended at something, something Thor didn’t even know he was doing, and then Loki would betray him once more.

He had to remain at a distance. He loved Loki, would always,  _ always  _ love Loki. But he could never afford to fully trust him again. No matter how good it got between them he had to always be looking over his shoulder to spot the knife that would one day be aimed at his back.

It was hard, relying on himself sometimes. He wasn’t stupid, despite what people thought, but he had grown used to leaning on the intelligence of Loki in the thousand years they had been by each other’s side. He couldn’t do that anymore. He was king now and had a duty to his people, he needed to start thinking for himself.

With a new, if grim resolve, Thor finally became aware of his surroundings. He’d gone a fair distance from the camp, far enough that he couldn’t spot the fire through the trees. The forest was silent, completely, deafeningly. Not an insect hum or a rustle of leaves. And  _ oh  _ how the trees flickered in the dull moonlight, watching him. Thor was completely alone, alone with the trees and their eyes.

Thor was not often afraid, but there was a cold hand creeping through his chest, stroking his stomach, caressing his ribs, gripping his heart. Something else was there, along side the cold hands of fear, something he had had with him all his life. It was his curiosity that guided him forward toward a trunk, thick with the shimmering black beads that blinked in and out of existence. Reaching out, he pressed his hands to the tree and -

It was bark. Normal. This was foolish, he should return to the camp, to the fire. He wondered, suddenly, what the trees thought of fire then shook it off. They were trees. That’s all. It was just a trick of the light, some weird sap maybe that the trees had that looked like eyes to him. None of the data on the planet talked about any form of sentient plant life.

He was being ridiculous, he she should return to -

“THOR!”

He only had enough time to turn his head toward No-Name’s desperate scream before he saw no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super sorry about how late this is guys. But as I said last time, I've had a hectic few weeks tbh, then Star Wars came out and robbed me of my will to do anything but obsess over Star Wars and It's been a struggle to get back into the swing of writing. But I'm back and HOPEFULLY I have another chapter out by next Thursday. If not I may have decided to cut back my updates to every two weeks. We'll see.
> 
> Now as always, you should check out my tumblr as I post extra stuff under the 'from the ashes' tag sometimes. I've got links to my youtube playlists for Peter, Thor and Loki up there already. I also might start doing short ficlits to go along with FTA from perspectives of non POV characters...
> 
> EDIT: So I've really gotten into the trans!peter parker headcanon and I've been considering making him trans. Thoughts?
> 
> Next time: Loki and Astrid gather some plants.


	9. Loki II - The Creatures in Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and co try to find Thor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Soo Sunday? I guess? I was considering posting this Monday, then next week it'd be Tuesday and so on until we cycle back to Thursday but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> As always thanks to astalitha, simplykayley & firechildslytherin5 for being AMAZING.

With one final, gentle pull, the plant came loose. Satisfied, albeit slightly damp, Loki passed it off to one of the children before wiping her brow with a forearm. For a day so overcast, it was certainly a hot one, and the manual labour didn’t help any.

They’d found this patch of harvestable plants almost an hour ago and had been working to pull some up ever since. According to her data these plants should adapt well to the ship environment and provide nutritious fruit quite regularly. It was lucky that they’d come across such a large patch of them. But by far the best part of the find was watching the dainty Lady Astrid struggle in the dirt.

There was a sort of sick glee about watching the poisonous bitch kneeling in the mud, struggling to uproot even a single plant, while Loki herself had pulled up three. The benefit to sorcerer’s training: if one could get used to drinking potions made with urine and menstrual blood and bathing in the warm blood and viscera of a dozen sacrificed horses, one could get used to anything.

“Do you need some assistance, dear Astrid?” Loki inquired, all false sweetness and poorly hidden mocking. The woman narrowed her eyes to slits for a fraction of a second before an easy smile graced her features.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Your Highness.” she said, flushing prettily. “I’m afraid I’m not as used to lowering myself as you are.”

Loki almost snorted. As far as snide remarks went, that was remarkably unimaginative. Nevertheless, she made her way over to where Astrid was struggling and lent a hand. Over the last three days she and Astrid had reached something of an understanding: they hated each other and they would never openly acknowledge it. As the superior in wit, Loki was greatly enjoying the arrangement.

Pulling Astrid’s plant soundly from the ground, Loki decided this would be the final plant of the day. She was tired, the children were tired. Astrid was tired as well but she cared less for that. The team of gatherers spent the rest of the afternoon packing up their small camp. It had been a long three days and she was looking forward to being back on the ship. As much as she prided herself with being sturdier than her blonde companion, she looked forward to her soft bed.

She would even admit to herself that she was looking forward to seeing Thor. She’d found herself thinking about his hunt on more than one occasion and was sure that Thor would be one of the few to return with a great beast. Loki had never enjoyed hunting with Thor, but now that she wasn’t with him she couldn’t help…

Loki shook off her foolishness. She hated hunts. That had  _ not  _ changed. Any time away from that oaf was worth it, even if she had to endure the polite poison which dripped from her companion’s lips.

Finally when the final pack was secured on the  _ Commodore,  _ and all the children accounted for in the back, Loki and Astrid took their seats in the cockpit and pulled the privacy screen up.

They flew low over the canopy and for a while, they were silent. But of course Loki couldn’t leave well enough alone for long.

“So,” she drawled. “looking forward to seeing Thor once more? You’ve had nothing to stare longingly at for  _ days.” _

Loki glanced at her companion, expecting to see the usual forced placid smile. Instead she laughed.  _ What? _

It was a cruel laugh, with very little humour in it. The sort of laugh one used when they were privy to unpleasant secrets. The sort of laugh Loki was intimately familiar with. She couldn’t help but blink in surprise and she  _ hated  _ being surprised.

“What?” She snapped.

Astrid grinned, “Oh, just the irony of  _ you  _ accusing  _ me _ of longing gazes.”

Loki frowned, confused and feeling like she’d just lost the upper hand without any idea of  _ how.  _ Recovering, she adopted a tone of light teasing. “Oh, come now, darling, I’ve seen the way you look at him. You can tell me about it, I do have intimate knowledge of him after all.”

“You have caught me, Your Highness, I do have a certain affection for Thor. However I doubt your  _ sibling  _ knowledge will help.” Astrid shot back, still with that annoying smirk, “He is  _ quite _ a man and I hope to know him  _ far  _ more intimately than you can ever hope to.”

That-That  _ stung.  _ In that moment of rage Loki almost leapt upon the bitch and ended her pitiful life. The rage subsided quickly but Astrid must have caught onto something as her smile had slipped off her face as surely as one had spread across Loki’s.

She swirled her chair and leaned in close, as if to share a secret, revelling in Astrid’s widened eyes. “I have felt his hands around my throat, squeezing out my life. I’ve felt his warm blood, slippery between my fingers after plunging my knife into his gut. I have known the heat of his worst rage and the sounds of his pleas at his most desperate. I have borne witness to his lowest sins and his highest achievements. My darling, you will  _ never  _ know him more intimately than I.”

Astrid swallowed, satisfied, Loki grinned and returned to the ship’s controls. They flew the rest of the journey in silence.

-

The ship camp had become a hive of activity in Loki’s absence. Many hunting parties had returned with their intended prizes and the camp buzzed as people worked on the carcasses of the truly enormous animal together. Loki was a little shocked at the size of them. She’d known, intellectually, that they were huge but she hadn’t expected them to be  _ huge _ . The meat from one beast alone could feed thirty people.

The pelts were massive and the fur soft. They would soon have an abundance of bedding and leather for clothing and armour. Loki watched one tanner rubbing brains over the grey-and-black fur of one leg of a pelt and wondered if she’d be able to acquire the finished product for her and Thor’s bed.

It was not only meat and fur they would be collecting. The creature’s massive bones could be fashioned into all manner of items, from tools and weapons, to bowls and needles. The organs could be eaten, or turned into water skeins in the case of the stomach and kidneys. Yes, the Asgardians were a bit richer that day.

After her items were stored safely in the ship, she found the Valkyrie. She was sitting by one campfire leaning against a snoring Hulk and drinking from a bottle of cheap, strong wine that the Grandmaster used to enjoy. It tasted like piss but Loki drank it anyway and couldn’t remember many of the nights when she had.

The woman looked up upon his arrival, drunken sneer painted across her otherwise pretty features. “Your worshipfulness,” she slurred, “to what do I owe the pl-pleasure?”

Loki barely kept her own sneer off her face. This woman was useful and Thor liked her. Loki would likely need to be on her good side in the future.

“Is Thor back yet?” She inquired cordially.

The Valkyrie shook her head wordlessly, too busy taking another swig from her bottle to provide Loki with a verbal answer. Loki sighed and glanced around the camp, wondering what to do. She could probably find Erik for a lesson, but she didn’t find the idea of trying to cater to the boy’s pigheadedness particularly appealing at that moment.

She was about to retreat inside to find a book to read when she noticed something… odd. Some small glint in the trees where really there should be nothing. Curious, she narrowed her eyes and moved closer to the treeline, trying to spot it again.

_ There.  _ Light flickered off the trunk of the tree where it really shouldn’t have been. Loki raised her hand and gently rested it onto the tree. Bark. Normal bark. At least to the touch. But touch was far from her only sense, reaching out with her mind she hooked into the tree’s consciousness and -

A small figure hurtled out of the trees to her left, one of Thor’s girls. She saw Loki and stumbled forward making Loki catch her, shocked.

“They’re behind me!” She gasped and Loki only just had time to look up to see three haunched figures fly out of the treeline toward them.

Without a thought she threw the girl behind her and summoned her knives, racing to meet the leader she slit its throat in seconds, its blood spraying hot against her face. It’s body fell, a puppet with its strings cut, revealing the other two creatures stopped cautiously at the edge of the trees.

They stood not much taller than Loki’s height and resembled men in some ways. Wrinkled grey skin hung loose on naked skeletal bodies. They were upright, yet they stood on all four legs, their forelegs freakishly elongated to allow their hand-like paws to keep them upright, long clawed fingers scratched at the ground. They were nude but for large round masks covering their faces, painted into identical, tusked snarls. The only thing resembling hair on their bodies were their beards, growing out from behind their masks in long dark dreads that reached their backwards knees.

Loki bared her teeth in a vicious grin, uncaring for the blood running down her face. “Who are you?” She demanded.

The one on the left tilted its head sickeningly, the mask rotating until it was almost upside down. It unleashed a series of clicks that Loki at first thought was the sound of its neck cracking. The other one made a similar noise and Loki realised they must be speaking. Seemingly coming to a decision, the creatures faded back into the treeline.

“Well  _ fuck _ .” Loki spat in disgust. Of course it had to be  _ now  _ that they discovered an intelligent species that the All-Speak didn’t translate for. Under any other circumstances she’d be curious to discover more. 

Turning on her heel, Loki strode back into a camp in chaos. People were scurrying this way and that, many were running for the ship, others were running toward Loki, weapons in hand. There was screaming and weeping and shouting and chaos.

“STOP!” She roared, and the camp stopped. Thousands of eyes turned to her expectantly. Mind racing, Loki gave her instructions. “ We must pack up camp quickly! Send the children inside first. Then we must put out the fires and pack up camp in an orderly manner. Make sure to take the wood we’ve cut down and the animals and plants we’ve collected inside with you. Those of you with any familiarity with weapons, find some and form a perimeter around the camp, watching the treeline for any sign of movement. If you know of someone who has not returned, find the lady Turid and let them know.” She paused a moment, no one moved. “Well what are you waiting for?”

The camp burst once more into action, this time with more purpose. She turned to the girl, who was on her feet now, looking scared and a little bloody.

“Where’s Thor?” She demanded.

The girl shook, “I don’t know. I don’t - in the forest. They have him - they - they have them all. I escaped and I -” she cut herself off with a sob.

Hissing out a frustrated breath, Loki crouched before the girl and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. The girl let out another sob, drew in a shaky breath and held onto it. After a few more moments she breathed out again, calmer. Loki rocked back on her heels and looked the girl in the eye.

“Tell me everything.”

-

We were at the campfire: me, Phora, No-Name and Thor. Days ago - the first night. Everything seemed fine, we were telling stories and eating meat from an animal that Phora shot earlier in the day. Thor got up to - well to - make use of the bushes. He was gone for a while but we didn’t pay any attention. And then they came.

They were silent, they didn’t even rustle the leaves of the trees. They emerged so suddenly that none of us seemed to even notice them before it was too late. I saw No stand up and Phora reach for her gun but they were too close. I got knocked out and they must have been soon after.

When I woke up I was in a room. It was dark with no windows or source of light at all except for a crack under the door. The others were there too, all unconscious. I don’t know why I woke up first. I tried to wake the others but they wouldn’t stir. I tried the door but as soon as I touched the handle I blacked out again.

When I woke the second time, the others were gone. I didn’t want to touch the handle again so I yelled for help and  _ they  _ came. One grabbed my arms, the other my legs and the third took my torso. Together they carried me out of the room and into an almost as dark tunnel that looked to be carved out of rock. The tunnel angled up, always up, we passed other tunnels going all sorts of directions, but we always took the route that lead upwards. There were other creatures that passed us that looked similar to these ones, but they wore no masks. It too dark to see properly but I got the impression that they had very small eyes, beady almost, but their noses were long and drooping, like an elephant’s trunk.

As we went up it got lighter and lighter and I realized that they hadn’t disarmed me - that I still had my sax. I don’t know why they left it on me - maybe I’m so small they figured I wouldn’t be any trouble. In any case I didn’t put up any fight - it would have been useless at that point, I was held too tightly, but I thought maybe I could use it to escape.

We got to a - some sort of - ship hanger. It was like some sort of hole in the ground, on all sides walls of sheer rock shot up to the surface. The ceiling far above us was a crisscross of branches, green leaves piled on top. Vines snaked down to the cavern’s floor at random intervals and I saw the creatures scaling them to reach the surface.

All around us was bustling activity. Ships surrounded us some almost as large as ours, some small fights and all sorts in between. Some were new and pristine, others were patched together in shambles and more were being taken apart all together. As I looked around the creatures carrying me brought me near the centre of the hanger where a man was waiting. He was more familiar, hairless, yellow, weedy looking - typical Aakon.

He was reading from a tablet but glanced up when we arrived. He looked over me for a second.

“Useless,” he said, “it’s only a weakling, throw it into the cage for eating.”

“Wait!” I yelped as they took me away, I didn’t like the sound of being eaten. It was no use though, the creatures ignored me and the Aakon just went back to reading from his tablet. I was helpless and scared but I still had my knife so I quietened down as they took me to the far side of the hanger and threw me into a cage of branches. One tied the door and then they wandered off.

At first I was too scared to do anything, the creatures passed me often and I was sure they would do something awful to me if they caught me trying to escape. But none even glanced down at me. After a while I felt brave enough to try the cage door. It was just a normal branch, I wouldn’t have any problem breaking it apart but I was afraid that the sound would draw attention before I escaped so Instead I moved to the back of the cage which was close to the rockface.

Nervous out of my mind, I pushed at the wall gently. Moving the cage a little away from the wall so I could fit into the space. Then I got to work with my knife, using my body to cover my actions, I cut the ropes binding the branches together. It was slow going as I stopped whenever one of the creatures got near but eventually I’d cut the back section of the cage off. Looking around I saw a nearby vine and figured it would be my best shot. I waited until there was no one anywhere near me and sprinted doubled over so less people could see me.

It worked too, no one even noticed I was escaping until I was halfway up the rope. By the time they started chasing me I was already at the surface. I didn’t have my compass or my homing beacon with me but I just headed generally north. I’ve been trying to avoid them for days, but they caught up and I just legged it. It was - it was just incredibly lucky that I made it back.

-

Loki watched the planet below with a quiet hatred as if the celestial body as a whole was the problem. Maybe it was. As Gyda told her story, Loki said nothing, simply stood facing the window, studying the planet which caused so much annoyance. She would see it  _ burn. _

Only when Gyda’s story wound down did she turn to face the room. Gyda sat at the table, wrapped in a blanket, clutching a mug of tea that Hilde had pressed into her shaking hands. The whole council sat in silence around her.

“Heimdall,” Loki prompted, keen to find out why the all-knowing hadn’t known.

“I see Thor, he is alive but unconscious in a dark room. Close, but I do not know where. I am sorry Your Highness, I do not look unless I am called.” 

Fair enough. As much as Loki hated the man, it would not do to take his anger out on him. No, now was the time to find Thor. Loki heaved a sigh and stopped herself from pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“Your Highness, if I may,” Astrid piped up, Loki had to bite back a quick refusal. “Perhaps we could track Thor using magic? You are a man of unrivaled magic, surely you -” 

But Loki was not listening. The word hit her with all the force of an enraged Hulk.  _ Man _ . She had -  _ she wasn’t  _ \- damnit not  _ now _ .

“I cannot track him.” She snapped. That she usually could have leaving a bitter taste on her tongue, almost as badly as the taste of her folly. Norns  _ damnit.  _ “If you’ll excuse me.” She said and swept out of the room, leaving a flood of confusion in her wake but she had to get  _ out of here, damnit. _

Hurrying through the halls in record time, Loki retreated to the safety of her quarters. Worry constricted her belly and pushed her heart into her throat. Now was the time to be looking for Thor, to be making a plan of attack to be doing  _ something.  _ Instead she was in here on the verge of panic. That  _ poisonous witch  _ did this to her and now all she could do was hide in her room like a child -  _ damnit! _

She needed to  _ get a grip.  _ Thor was  _ out there  _ and as much as she hated him sometimes if he was ever going to die it would be by  _ her hands _ . However, first she needed a dose of reality.

Mind made up, she made her way into the small bathroom she and Thor shared. Heart quickening as she faced her greatest enemy and her only salvation.

In the mirror a man faced Loki. A man whose skin  _ he  _ had worn  _ his  _ entire life, whose skin  _ he  _ didn’t mind wearing, whose skin  _ he  _ fit. Words flooded back to  _ him,  _ a memory. Words  _ he’d  _ said a thousand times.

“You are a man,” she told the mirror, “and you must accept it.”

She  _ He  _ wasted precious minutes glaring at the mirror, willing  _ himself  _ to accept what she saw. Gods  _ damn  _ that wretched woman. Now was not the time for this.

She heard a knock at the door to the chambers. 

“Your Highness,” Heimdall’s voice filtered through the door. “We need your guidance.”

Loki sighed and closed her eyes, conceding victory. Now really wasn’t the time to be arguing with her reflection.  _ Thor  _ was missing and she needed to find him. Damn it  _ all  _ why now?

“I’ll be out in a moment!” She called, trying not to cringe at the sound of her own voice. She had to think of something, anything. They needed to find Thor and get the  _ fuck  _ out of this forsaken solar system.

She ran her mind over Gyda’s story again and caught on something. A small detail.

_ “I didn’t have my compass or my homing beacon…” _

Homing beacon. The ship had dozens of the things, they sent out a signal paired with the ship and would beep when pointing in the direction of it. Thor had obviously given some to the girls to carry with them. Which meant that if the packs were at the creatures nest, then the homing beacons would be as well.

Racing to the door, she slammed it open, much to Heimdall’s shock.

“Can we track the homing beacon?” She demanded. 

Heimdall blinked, then frowned in thought. “Perhaps,” he said after a moment. “though I’ve no idea how.”

Purpose set, Loki strode past the man and made for the depths of the ship.

The engine room was quieter than usual, only the sound of the sublight engine churned away. The blacksmith, Sigurd was sitting at a table, playing a game of cards with himself and didn’t seem to notice Loki and Heimdall’s entrance.

“Excuse me,” Loki prompts and that finally caught the boy’s attention, jumping to his feet his eyes widen in much the same way they had a week ago when Loki had last sought him out. Loki wonders briefly if she’d done something to him in the past.

“Um yes, Your Highness?”

“Do you know of the homing beacons some took with them on the hunt?”

The blacksmith frowned, “Ah - yes? I’m not -” his eyes widened in understanding, “did the King have one on him? Because if he has one I can track him.”

Loki grinned, “That’s what I like to hear.”

-

In the end they couldn’t track the beacon from the ship. Sigurd fashioned a device to hook into the beacon’s signal and track it in the same way it tracked the ship: simply beeping when one faced the correct direction.

Loki left the ship with Heimdall and took a small group in the  _ Commodore.  _ There was Sigurd, to make sure the tracking device worked, Gyda, to give insights into the layout of the tunnel system, the Valkyrie for muscle and for  _ some  _ reason Astrid and Vigi.

The pair had come aboard the  _ Commodore  _ just before they were about to leave. Equally stubborn sets to their jaws that reminded her of Thor. It was no wonder that he liked them. Taking one look at them she decided to leave them alone, now was not the time for arguments. She could tell them that they would be a hindrance, that without any training in combat they were two more people that she and the Valkyrie had to protect. Then again, maybe this would present a good opportunity to get rid of Astrid before she presented herself as a problem.

Cheered at the thought, Loki took off without a word.

She flew down to the planet’s surface, straight back to the field where the ship had been. Hovering just above tree level, Loki indicated to Sigurd to turn on the device. There was a tense moment when nothing happened, but sure enough, the machine began to beep when facing south. Loki followed the noise at a crawl.

“We’re not exactly being very subtle,” The Valkyrie commented from the back passenger seat. “I thought that was, like, your thing. They’ll see us coming from a mile away. Heck, maybe it’s a trap.”

“They will likely see us coming regardless and take little countermeasures. They will believe themselves safe with numbers on their side. Don’t worry, dear Valkyrie, there will be time for subtlety later, when we have fooled them into thinking they know all our actions.”

“And what if they just shoot us out of the sky?” Astrid demanded from the back, skepticism laced in her voice.

Loki held back a frustrated sigh, did she really have to spell it all out? “They won’t shoot us down because they want to capture us.” She gritted out.

“How do you know that?”

“Because Thor is still alive! Heimdall has seen it. Why keep Thor and the others alive if they didn’t want them for something? They got rid of Gyda because they saw her as weak, which means they want strength. Why would they want strength?”

The Valkyrie’s eyes widened, “They want slaves!”

Loki grinned, “Exactly. They won’t kill us because they  _ want  _ us. That gives us the advantage.”

The others looked at each other uneasily, but seemed at least somewhat appeased by this. Loki accepted this and focused back on flying. At the crawling pace it was nearly an hour before they got close to the homing beacon. Loki landed the ship and the six of them made the rest of the way on foot. 

Heart in her throat, Loki walked just behind Sigurd, her hand firmly on Gyda’s shoulder. She would protect them from serious harm when they were discovered but the rest would have to fend for themselves. As they neared the beacon, their device beeped faster and faster until Sigurd had to turn it off. They were very close now.

They inched their way forward through the trees, finally coming out to a clearing, where the remains of a campfire lay dead. Loki’s stomach plummeted at the sight, turning, she only had to glance at the girl to know that this was their campsite. The creatures hadn’t taken their packs.

They had no way to find Thor.

“W-what-?” Sigurd stammered, “it should - it should be right here.”

Loki’s fingers clenched into fists.

“Are we in the wrong place?” Vigi demanded.

“I think we’re at the beacons,” Gyda said, “just the beacons aren’t in the right place.”

Breaking free of the group, Loki strode forward, nails digging specks of fire into her palms. With jerky movements, she yanked one of the packs off the ground, emptying its contents. There, flashing red, was the homing beacon they’d been following. Helpless rage swept through her and if she had her full magic, she would have surely destroyed this wretched clearing.

_ “Damnit!”  _ She flung the pack into a nearby tree with all her might. With a powerful  _ crack  _ the thin trunk snapped clean through sending up a shower of sparks.

_ What? _

“Was that - ?” Sigurd took a hesitant step toward the tree, then another, then he and Loki were moving toward it as one while the others hung cautiously back. The boy and Loki leaned over the broken trunk. Sure enough, wires ran through its centre, connecting to thousands of tiny spines that extended out to the surface of the tree.

Loki reached forward to touch only to have her wrist grabbed. She shot an annoyed glance up at the boy who blushed.

“You - you shouldn’t touch it, Your Highness, you might get an electric shock.”

Loki gave him an unimpressed look. “I grew up with the god of thunder.” She deadpanned.

Sigurd blinked and let her go. “Fair enough.”

Unhindered, Loki reached forward once more and brushed her fingers against the spike. Ignoring the spark of electricity that rushed through her, she pushed her residual magic into the device and  _ saw. _

She saw from a million eyes all at once. She saw herself and the others from a thousand angles, she saw the peaceful forest, a family of piglike creatures snuffling through the undergrowth and the beast that hunted them, she saw an insect launch itself after a mate and a herd of enormous  _ kovick _ lumbering through a field. She saw a creature in a mask, then a dozen, slipping between the branches of a massive pit.

She let go, gasping and wondered if that was what it was like being Heimdall.

“What is it?” Gyda asked from behind her. Loki turned back to the group with a wicked grin.

“A way to find Thor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So what did you think? I know Loki's pronoun switch was a bit weird but I basically figured that it was kind of an unconscious thing until Astrid said what she did. I mean, Loki is bi-gender, that doesn't change just because they stay male all the time. (I have a better explanation for everything but that's in later chapters)
> 
> I'd like to say thank you SO MUCH to everyone who commented last chapter! I'm really sorry I haven't replied, I'll get to it after I post this. Also thank you to ANYONE who has EVER commented. You guys keep my story alive!
> 
> With the update schedule, it's all a mess at the moment, I'm gonna try to swing it back around to Thursday, but I've been trying that for weeks... So just expect the next chapter at some point between next Thursday and the Monday after. Then again I still might drop back to updating every two weeks. We'll see.
> 
> Next Week: Thor is getting pretty fucking tired of this whole 'getting taken prisoner to be a slave' thing.
> 
> P.S. as always, check out my tumblr! I often have little extra shit on there under the 'from the ahses' tag and if you ever want to talk about my story or stuff in general pm me!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr: http://iamjustalways.tumblr.com/


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